Fixing Tim
by CerapinTech
Summary: Laura Whitten is trying to restore her brother, Timothy, to his former idiotic self with the help of Donatello. When Laura comes face to face with the Kraang, she takes advantage of the situation to gather data on the mutagen.
1. Chapter 1-The New Girl

**A/N:** Alright, it time for the long awaited arc and sequel to Finding Tim. To those of you just tuning in, you might wanna check that one out first. And I would also like to take this time to thank BubblyShell22 for religiously reviewing my work, and I encourage you all to post reviews also, makes me feel warm inside. I accept criticism too. Anyways, enough of my talk. I now introduce the first chapter of Fixing Tim.

* * *

 **Chapter 1** : The New Girl

Laura Whitten was pretty good with maps. She could navigate the complicated network of bus routes and train schedules, maneuver through complicated hospital floor plans, find her way around Disney Land during the Christmas season, but trying to distinguish one sewer tunnel from the next in the maze underneath New York City was past her capabilities.

She studied the mess of lines drawn out on her map, there were so many side tunnels and turn offs, not to mention a lack of landmarks other than an increasingly horrid smell. She had become hopelessly lost.

 _How those guys do it is beyond me,_ Laura thought, pulling out her cell phone. She dialed for help, so much for surprising them.

 **O**

April O'Neil felt a nervous tug in her gut. It had been awhile since April had gotten mad and at her friends, blaming them for what had happened to her father. It had been wrong of her, she knew that now. A good talk with a boy she was tutoring helped her see that some things were just beyond our control. And despite all the things she said, Donatello had still been there for her when she needed him. He was a good friend, possibly more than that?

This was going to be her first time going back to the lair since then, and despite everything, she was nervous.

"Get it together, O'Neil," she told herself. She took a deep breath, dragged aside the man hole cover and climbed into the dark, dank, New York sewers that had become so familiar to her over the past year. She walked the route so many times before. The familiar sound of running water, dripping faucets and leaking pipes sounded filled her ears . . . along with a sound that didn't quite belong there.

Footsteps . . . and not hers.

Instantly alert, April moved forward quietly as she'd been trained to do by Master Splinter. She peered around the corner where the sound was coming from. Nothing. It was coming from farther in.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she followed the sound until she came upon the source. Farther down one of the tunnels stood an older girl. She wore green cargo pants, a baggy sweater, and a brown baseball cap with a backpack swung over her shoulders.

The girl was studying a piece of paper, occasionally glancing up at her surroundings as she made her way through the tunnels.

As she started moving, eyes still glued to the paper, April noticed something sticking out of the girls back pocket. All she could make out is that it was long and narrow. A weapon? April couldn't be sure, but she stayed on her guard.

This girl could be a potential enemy. Could she could be a new member of the Foot Clan? No, she was making too much noise to be a ninja, and she wasn't Kraangy enough to be a robot . . . Either way, April had to know what she was up to, but it was too risky to confront this girl on her own, so she settled with recon.

The girl stopped at a fork in the tunnels and consulted the paper again, which April figured to be some sort of map. With a frustrated sigh, the paper crumpled as she clenched hand and pulled out a cell phone. Fingering one of her twin braids, the girl tapped the screen and held it up to her face.

"Hey, Grape," the girl said as someone picked up on the other end of the line. April couldn't hear what the other person was saying from her vantage point. "Actually, I'm trying to find you now, but I have idea where I am."

The girl paused as the other person responded.

 _Grape?_ April thought, _What kind of name is that? A nick name? Code name?_

"Yea—no. Your map is about as useless as Taq polymerase with no magnesium chloride . . . No, I can navigate just fine, but these tunnels don't make any sense! Give me a titration any day . . . Alright, but hurry up, these samples won't stay cold forever. I can feel the ice melting on my back." The girl shifted the backpack on her shoulders.

 _What kind of samples would you bring into a sewer?_ April thought. _This doesn't make any sense._ It was obvious from the technical terms that this girl was some sort of scientist. But she was kind of young, so maybe a student?

The girl slid the phone back into her pants pocket. She slipped off her backpack and leaned against the wall, placing the bag at her feet. Then she started bobbing her head and tapping her foot to a song she sung in her head as she waited for whoever was on the other end of the conversation to show up.

Five minutes passed and no one showed up. April was staring to get bored, but remembered Master Splinter's teachings: _Patience is a discipline that all ninjas must master._ So April sucked it up and waited.

The girl suddenly stopped her tapping and stood still for a moment, her face scrunched up in thought. She made a few gestures with her hands, as if drawing in the air, she wiped away what she drew and started drawing something else. She scratched her head, thinking. Then her eyes went wide as a particular thought struck her.

"That could totally work!" She said excitedly.

She dropped to the ground, crossing her legs and ripped her backpack open. She dug out a pen and notebook and proceeded to madly start writing out whatever epiphany had struck her. Apprehension and excitement covered her face as her pen flew over the page.

April watched the girl with interest, wondering what was could excite someone like that. She almost didn't notice that she wasn't the only one watching the girl either. On the opposite side of the tunnel, April spotted something that made her blood run cold.

 _No! Not now, you'll be seen!_ April sent her thoughts out as she saw Donatello round the corner. Although she had psychic powers, April's silent warning didn't reach the mutant turtle. He was holding his T-Phone out in front of him, following its directions as he tracked something. He looked up as he realized he was close and spotted the older girl sitting cross legged in the middle of the sewers. He stopped in his tracks and April felt relief flood her system.

The girl was too busy writing in her book to notice the turtle's arrival. All Donnie had to do was sneak away like the ninja he was, silent as the night.

But to her dismay, a wicked smile spread across Donnie's sweet face as he realized that the girl was too wrapped up in her idea to have noticed his presence.

 _What are you doing!?_ April yelled in her head as Donnie crept quietly toward the unsuspecting girl. Apparently, he didn't care about being seen. He clamped his hands on the girl's shoulders, and three things happened at once.

First, the girl jumped. Her butt actually left the ground, and her notebook fell from her grasp. She gasped, but didn't scream.

Second, she grabbed at the long object that protruded from her back pocket. What was it? _Was_ it a weapon?

And third, she twisted her body, spun around and slapped her assailant in the face with her weapon. Donnie stumbled back.

"Fuck, Grape!" The girl yelled as her heart pounded in her chest, "Gaaaah!" She slapped him again over the head for good measure. Donnie retreated, clutching at his cheek where a red, rectangular slap mark was forming. He tried for a small smile and a weak laugh before the girl raised her weapon again threateningly. "You know I simple, 'Nice to see ya again", or 'Hey, it's been awhile' would work just fine!"

April saw that the girl's weapon wasn't much of a weapon at all. Clutched tightly in the girl's hand was a regular wooden ruler, lined with red plastic.

Donnie backed off, raising his hands in surrender, "Okay okay. Geez, Raph wasn't kidding when he said a ruler is a deadly weapon in your hands."

"Red's felt my wrath before," the girl grumbled, still agitated, and slipped the ruler back into her back pocket.

 _Donnie knows her?_ April thought. Confusion coursed through her mind, as well as another feeling . . . what was it? _She knows Raph, too . . . ?_ April tried to connect the pieces. Who was this girl? What happened while she was away? Did the turtles find another girl because she was too stubborn to come back? Did they replace her? If, they did, why did Donnie come back for her when she called?

 _Snap out of it!_ April told herself, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it of poisonous thoughts. _There's got to be a reasonable explanation as to who this_ girl _is._

The manner in which she thought the word 'girl' startled April. She thought it with such venom. She shook off the thought and continued to watch the exchange between her best friend and this stranger.

"So, you got them?" Donnie asked, eyeing the girl backpack.

"Noooo," the girl responded sarcastically picking up her discarded note book and swinging her backpack over her shoulder again, "I just figured I'd get myself lost in a dark, creepy tunnel just so my prince charming can come rescue me. Of course I got them, baka. Isn't that what I said?"

 _Prince Charming?_ That feeling from before erupted through April again . . .

"Oh yeah, well who's the baka who couldn't even find her way through a little sewer?" Donnie responded, poking the girl's arm, taunting her.

 _He's flirting!_

"You call this," the girl gestured wildly with her arms, "little? This tunnel system is as complex as the metabolic pathway!"

"Oh please, it's can't be any worse than DNA sequencing."

"Bioinformatics is not hard. These tunnels are hard."

They walked off, debating the level of complexity the tunnel system actually attained, with Donnie leading the way, easily navigating the tunnels and moving through forks and crossroads.

April stood with her back against the wall and listened as the sound of their voices drifted farther and farther away.

 _Why am I hiding like this?_ April realized. _I should be back at the lair, making up with the guys . . . But. . . Whoisshe?DoesDonnielikeher?Wheredidshecomefrom?Whendidthishappen?_

 _Stop, stop, STOP!_ April pushed the onslaught of questions out of her head. What was she doing? She clamped her hands down on her head and tried to clear her mind.

After a few minutes of deep breathing, she made up her mind. She would just pretend she never saw anything. She can't tell Donnie that she had been spying on him and his new girlfr—

 _No! She's not, she can't be—I'm his friend . . . Right? But I haven't been much of a friend lately . . . it's only because of Casey that I forgave them . . . What does Donnie think of Casey? I'm sure he feels the same way I do . . . It seems like we both found someone new._

April didn't like where her train of thought was leading. Did she like Donnie like that? Could something like that work out? But, what about Casey? Did she have feelings for him, or was he just something to replace what she left behind when she left the turtles?

"Why is being a girl so hard!?" April said aloud.

* * *

 **A/N** : There you go. Some tension rises as April discovers a new girl in the mix. Don't forget to leave a review and stuff. More is to come.


	2. Chapter 2-The Girls Meet

**A/N:** Alright, chapter 2 which turned out to be the longest chapter I've written yet. Now, I've got exams and crap coming up, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update the next while. In all honesty, I probably won't have much more before the Christmas. I'm still working out some kinks and stuff in the next few chapters, but bare with me. Well, on with this crapily named chapter. Honestly, if someone can think of something better, let me know.

* * *

 **Chapter 2:** The Girls Meet

 _"I see," Dr. Right said to Dr. Blip, "So the flux generator is controlled by the engine recon starter."_

 _"It is a simple matter of rewiring the carbon based capacitor," Dr. Blip explained. The two scientists worked together on upgrading Super Robo Mecha. Meanwhile the Princess spied on the two from the doorway._

 _"Who does she think she is?" the Princess asked._

 _"Is something the matter Princess?" Lunk came up behind her with Squeakums on his shoulder._

 _"Nothing for you to be worried about," the Princess stalked away. "I need to go moisturize my hair, oh yes."_

 _Sqeakums screeched from his vantage point._

 _"You said it, Squeakums," Lunk agreed, "This can't end well, oh no it won't."_

 ** _O o O o_**

Mikey looked up from the TV and saw that Donnie had come back with Laura Whitten in tow.

"Laura!" he exclaimed, jumping up from lying on the ground.

"How's it going Sunshine?" Laura greeted him.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Raph looked up from his pinball game.

"Good to see you too, Red."

"Where have you been?" Raph demanded, "We looked all over for you."

"That's the point of staying hidden," Laura smiled.

"Donnie, what happened to your face?" Mikey leaned in close, examining the welt that had formed on his cheek. Laura grinned and waited for him to answer.

"Hey, let's analyze those samples before they thaw out," Donnie changed the subject, not wanting to explain his encounter with Laura's ruler. Laura decided to let him off this time, she could feel the ice in her makeshift cooler starting to melt down her back. She followed him into the lab.

 ** _O o O o_**

 _Okay, here we go_.

April had taken some time to compose herself and was now pushing through the turnstiles and entering the lair. The guys were all happy to see her again, it was like she had never left. Mikey even offered her a piece of pizza he called the Slice of Eternal Reunion, although it was pretty nasty. He ended up scarfing it down before anyone could stop him.

Throughout said reunion, April couldn't help but notice that Donnie seemed a little distracted.

"Got something on your mind?" she asked, the memory of the girl in the tunnel flashing through her mind.

"Actually, I think we're getting closer to finding a retro mutagen," Donnie got excited and was about to start spouting his findings when a thought struck him. "Actually . . . I should probably go check on the plasmid purification." And he rushed off to his lab, without a second thought.

"We?" April asked turning to the other guys, knowing where this was going.

"Yeah, that's right," Raph said, "you haven't met her yet."

"Her?"

"Laura, she's pretty awesome." Mikey said, "And get this, she's totally the Pulveriser's sister!"

"What?!" April didn't have fond memories of the organ monster that Donnie kept stashed in his lab. After all, it did attack her and Casey a while back.

"Long story," Leo took over, "Short version, she's a molecular genetics student from Baltimore and she's been able to get into some of the labs in the city to run some tests. She's been working with Donnie to try and thaw out the Pulveriser and find a retro mutagen."

"Why can't they just run the tests here?" April asked. "Donnie's been doing fine with what he's got up until now."

"Something to do with better equipment," Raph said, flipping through a magazine.

"Something wrong, April?" Mikey asked, leaning forward. He was always good at detecting people's moods.

"What? No, nothing's wrong," April reassured them and glanced longingly at the door to Donnie's lab.

"Well, there has been less explosions lately," Raph said, turning a page.  
"And Donnie's actually been sleeping, for once," Leo added.

"And Raph gets smacked," Mikey said grinning.

"How about I smack _you_!" Raph jumped off the couch, his magazine forgotten and Mikey dashed off, evading capture.

"Wait, what do you mean?" April turned to Leo, who was rolling his eyes at his brothers running around. "Why hasn't Donnie been sleeping?"

Leo hesitated before answering. "Well, ever since you stopped coming around, Donnie's kind of gone into overdrive trying to create a retro-mutagen. I've had to drag him to bed a little too often. Even then, he'd sneak back into the lab before the sun came up. But now that Laura's been helping him, it's like half the load is off his shoulders. He doesn't have to deal with it all by himself anymore. And she actually understands what he's saying half the time."

April looked down at her hands. Did she really do that? Was she really that horrible? How could she have pushed away her friend when he was trying so hard to fix everything?

April looked towards the lab again. Was that other girl really so much better than her? Was she even needed here anymore? Donnie has this new girl now, so why should she stick around? The new girl was there when the guys needed someone. She can help Donnie find a cure. So why does it all feel so wrong?

April tried to make sense of the swirl of emotions; guilt, sadness, longing . . . anger? Why was she angry? She didn't want to admit it, but it was there. April was angry. Angry at the Kraang, for taking her father away again. Angry at herself, for deserting her friends. Angry at this new girl, who thinks she can replace her. April shook her head, trying to get rid of these thoughts.

Looking up, April saw that Raph had caught up to Mikey, who was now groveling on the floor in pain. Leo had turned on the TV, trying his best to tune out Raph and Mikey.

April stood up and walked over to the lab, opening the doors. The girl was sitting behind Donnie's computer, with Donnie looking over her shoulder. They both looked up when she came in.

"Can I help with anything?"

 ** _O o O o_**

"Come on, Donnie," Leo yelled, "we're going."

"I'm coming," Donnie yelled back, "just give me a minute." He jotted down a few last notes. It had been a long, exciting day in the lab and he didn't want to forget any of the many ideas and possibilities that popped into his head throughout the process.

"Get going," Laura cut in, pushing him towards his brothers who waited for him, "I'll finish up in here."

"Thanks," Donnie said as he grabbed his bo staff, "Don't forget to—,"

"I know how to clean up," Laura interrupted, "now go on, Grape. Kick some Foot, or whatever it is you do."

Donnie rolled his eyes at his nickname, but he'd grown used to it over the few weeks he and Laura had been working together, although it was mostly by phone call or video chat, since she insisted that they remain in the dark about her whereabouts.

She'd given each of them nicknames, although he wasn't sure where his came from. Leo's and Raph's were easy, just the colour of their masks, "Red" and "Blue". She called Mikey "Sunshine", which would have arisen from his bubbly, bright personality. But he couldn't make the connection between himself and the name "Grape".

"You coming, April?" Leo asked as the boys turned to leave on their patrol.

"I'll catch up," April said smiling.

Leo looked to Raph, who shrugged. The four turtles leapt over the turnstiles and Donnie turned around and waved to April before taking off after the others.

April's smile disappeared with the turtles. She walked back over Donnie's lab and watched the new girl bustle around, dismantling pieces of equipment and putting them in their respective places, as if she'd been working there for years instead of just a few weeks.

April though back to when she spied on this girl and Donnie in the sewer tunnels. They had acted so familiar with each other. That twisting feeling from back then appeared in her gut again and she felt that same emotion run through her mind. It made her angry . . . she didn't know why, but she didn't like this new girl.

Laura continued cleaning up, not noticing that April was watching her from the door. Laura was excited about the results they had gotten today. It was slow going, but they were finally starting to decompose the molecular structure of the mutagen. With the equipment she was able to use at _Pin Tech_ , she was able to get data about all sorts of structural properties in the mutagen. With a lot of work, they may be able to breakdown the mechanism on how it seems to splice and intertwine two different strands of DNA.

Laura mused about the different possibilities: homologous recombination, transposition, something totally new! Laura giggled to herself and started humming the tune to Skillet's "Good to be Alive". The humming turned into singing, and the singing turned into dancing.

She was launching into the chorus when she twirled around and noticed that she wasn't alone.

"Shi—," Laura stumbled, startled by her company and almost dropped a couple beakers. She regained her composure and looked up at the red haired girl that stood quietly studying her. Laura stood awkwardly, placing the beakers on a bench top, where they wouldn't shatter on the floor.

April had been a little distant and quiet while helping her and Grape out in the lab. Laura wasn't sure what to make of her. From what Grape had told her over the last few weeks, because April always seemed to come up in the conversation one way or another, she was a good friend and a good person. The turtles had saved her from the alien guys and they had been friends ever since.

Laura had decided that anyone who can hang out with a bunch of giant talking turtles and not have a problem with it had to be open minded. But from what she'd seen in the lab today, she seemed a little hostile. Maybe she was still bitter about the reason why she had stopped coming around in the first place.

"Hi," Laura said, when she realized that April wasn't going to start the conversation.

"Hey," April replied cooly.

"What's up?"

"Not much."

Laura waited for her to say more, but the girl just continued studying her from the door way.

"Good talk," Laura nodded after a few moments of silence. She grabbed the beakers off the counter and walked over to the shelf where the others were located. Laura washed out the rest of the glass ware in silence, all too aware of the set of eyes following her around. When all was put away, Laura sat down behind Grape's computer and proceeded to write up the day's activities.

Laura heard a scoffing when she sat down. Looking up, she saw April roll her eyes.

"Is there a problem?" Laura asked, feeling annoyed now.

"Nope," April replied her eyes drifting around the lab, "no problem at all."

"Then is there something on your mind?"

"Why would you think that?" April replied sarcastically.

"Did I do something to piss you off?" Laura confronted her, "Cuz I'm really not feeling the love here."

April looked away, suddenly interested in something on the other side of the room. She didn't answer.

"Nothing? Okay." Laura turned back to the computer screen, typing out words at an impressive speed.

April watched this new girl, Laura Whitten, act like she owned the place. This was Donnie's lab, his place. April didn't know why she felt like this . . . but the thought of this other girl spending time her friend really unsettled her. She didn't like it.

"You know, it might help to talk about it," Laura sighed, "You know, if it's bothering you that much."

April looked back over to where Laura sat, confused.

"I get it," Laura said, smiling knowingly, "being a girl can suck major balls sometimes."

April felt some of her animosity melt away. Her smile was so soft, and welcoming. It was as if she knew exactly what was going on in April's head, so when Laura dragged over an extra chair, April sat down across from the new girl and buried her face in her arms on the table, letting out a frustrated groan.

"I don't know why," April said, her voice muffled in her arms, "but I don't like you."

"Way to be direct," Laura raised her eyebrows, "And what do you not like about me?"

"I don't know," April huffed, deciding to just let it all out, "I just feel mad."

"And why are you mad," Laura asked, leaning back in her chair.

"I don't know . . . I guess, it's just . . ."

"Jealousy?" Laura asked. It was a simple question that could be interpreted in many negative ways. But the way Laura said it . . . She wasn't trying to be smug, rub in that the presence of another girl in the lair had unsettled her this much. It was almost like Laura was as uncomfortable as April was with the whole situation. "I get it. You leave for a while and when you come back, there's some new girl here taking your place."

"Am I jealous?" April realized that this was the feeling that's been lingering in her gut since she saw Donnie come to pick up Laura in the sewer tunnels. She thought about her time with Donnie and Laura earlier that day, how Laura would talk with him in a language that she knew was English, but couldn't make heads or tails of it as they discussed enzymes and reaction pathways. April thought about how Laura would poke him with her ruler, and tease him with a light smile. She called him nick names and giggled at his scientific jokes.

She really was jealous. And she had good reason to be, "You're leading him on." April stood up, placing her hands on the table, looking angry.

Understanding donned on Laura's face as she finally grasped what was really bothering April.

 _Interesting,_ Laura thought, _she likes him back._

"Who, Grape?" Laura asked aloud, playing it out.

"Who else is there around here that you're flirting with?"

"You call working together towards a common goal, flirting?"

"No," April stuck her hip out, balancing her fists on them, "I'm talking about calling him pet names, and patting his head, and acting like you've known him forever."

Laura watched her for a moment, "Why should it matter to you?"

"Because he's my friend. I don't want to see him hurt."

"Who says he's going to get hurt?"

"Well . . . it's just . . ." April fumbled for an answer, "This sort of relationship . . . well, it just wouldn't—"

"Relax," Laura said, letting her off the hook, smiling again, "It's not like that."

"That's not what it looked like," April huffed in response.

"Look hon, in case you haven't noticed, I'm almost, like, 10 years older than all of you, here. And I'm have no desire for a romantic relationship. Never really have."

"Than what was all that? Acting like you've known him forever."

"That," Laura said waving her finger in the air, "was how I would treat that idiot over there." She pointed to the containment unit that housed a frozen Pulveriser, "I won't say that Grape reminds me of Tim, cuz Tim's a moron, but there's a childlike quality to him that I just can't help but find adorable."

". . . Like the way he gets excited over chain-link copolymers?" April remembered the excitement in his face as he tried to explain the reaction scheme of how the monomers bonded together in a particular material.

"Hey, copolymers is some pretty exciting stuff," Laura started playing with her ruler, "especially when they're self assembled. But yeah, something like that. I don't know, I guess it's kinda nice to have a younger brother again. Tim's been missing for a while now, but even before that, I was away at school. We've never really had a chance to just hang out lately. And by the looks of it, I won't get to for a while. At least not until we figure out this mess."

Laura watched April who was nervously fingering the hem of her shirt now. It was kind of hard not to notice that Donnie liked April, what with all the stories he told her about how awesome she is. Laura had also noticed him stealing glimpses at her earlier while they worked. He's even got a picture of the two of them framed on his desk. Laura thought the whole thing was pretty cute, but it also raised the question about how it would work out.

"You ask me about leading him on," Laura started carefully, after a few moments of silence. She held one end of the ruler in each hand, "but what about you?"

April froze for a second, then averted her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Cut the crap. I mean really, it's hard to not notice that Grape really likes you. Now, I don't want to overstep my boundaries here, seeing as I'm still rather new to the whole mutant turtle thing, but aren't you the one kind of leading him on. Isn't there this other guy you've been hanging out with?"

"Where do you go off . . . I mean that's not . . . You don't understand . . ." a whirl of emotions crossed April's face as she tried to come up with an answer. She went silent for a moment, "I don't know, Casey's just the guy I'm tutoring, it's not like I like him or anything. I mean, we've had some excitement and all, but . . . It's just that this isn't exactly . . ." She struggled to find the right way of saying it.

"It's complicated," Laura smiled, "You know, I think we need some girl talk. There's way too much testosterone down here. How about we go top side?"

"Don't you have to stuff to finish here?"

"Nothing that's more important than a chocolate sundae topped with sprinkles and extra whipped cream," Laura saved her work onto a memory stick that she hung around her neck. With a few clicks the computer shut itself down.

April's mouth watered at the promise of sweet ice cream and chocolate. What girl can refuse an offer like that?

* * *

 **A/N:** Aww, looks like Laura and April are gonna have a heart to heart. How nice. Don't worry, the sappy stuff's almost done. Onto the explosions!

Oh, and don't forget to tell me how i'm doing. Review and follow and all that crap. It makes me excited like the loser I am, but I embrace it cuz that's how I role.


	3. Chapter 3-The Shed

**Chapter 3** : The Shed

Another night, another hunt. The boys had once again split up in search of mutagen. With Laura now helping find a retro-mutagen, they were going through more canisters of the stuff than they could collect.

"This blows," Mikey yawned as he leaned against a heating unit on one of the rooftops. "Why can't we do anything fun anymore? It's all looking for mutagen every night. Talk about a snooze fest."

"Quit your complaining," Raph said as he shuffled around some loose newspapers littering the roof. "You know we gotta find all this stuff."

"But it's been weeks now," Mikey complained, "Don't you think we would have found all there is to find by now?"

"Tell that to our fearless leader," Raph muttered.

Leo and Donnie weren't faring any better than Raph and Mikey in the search. In their case, it mostly consisted of them following whichever weird signal Donnie's tracker managed to pick up, which wasn't all that reliable, according to Leo. But Don insisted that the theory was correct, but a lack of proper equipment and parts has left him with a makeshift device that breaks down regularly, picking up odd signals now and then.

"There's nothing on this street," Leo said giving the alley a final once over, "Let's move onto the next one."

"Okay, just give me a . . ." Donnie muttered, adjusting something on the side of his tracker, "I've almost . . . Got it!" The tracker started beeping and the egg beaters on the top started spinning.

"You got something?" Leo asked peering doubtfully at the trackers screen.

"Yeah, I'm picking up a signal about . . . two blocks over." Donnie started scaling the fire escape, holding up the tracker. "From the looks of it, it's not at ground level."

"The roof it is," Leo said, swinging ahead of Donnie, "You sure it's for real this time?"

"I guess we'll find out," Donnie said testily as they pulled themselves onto the roof.

After a few minutes of searching, Leo spotted the unearthly telltale glow that could only come from the ooze, "Over here Donnie!" The glow was coming from a shed window that had been smashed. The door was locked, but it didn't take long for Donnie to fix that.

Sliding open the door the brothers gasped at what they found: not just one, but multiple canisters of mutagen lined up against the wall. Pages of chemical formulas and drawings were taped to the walls and a number of binders and files littered the floor in neat stacks.

"This is amazing," Donnie said examining the pages stuck to the wall, "Do you know what this is?" He asked glancing at Leo who met his glance with a blank stare.

"Doodles of a mad man?" he suggested. Donnie was too busy to notice his sarcasm.

"It's almost like the chemical makeup of ordinary DNA, but it's not quite right. There're extra phosphate groups on the 3' end where there should be a hydroxyl, and the configuration isn't right. There're discrepancies in the major and minor grooves of the double helix."

"Translation," Leo interrupted Donnie before he really got going.

"If this is what I think it is, then it seems like the Kraang's mutagen alters the DNA in a way that no other mutagen does. Instead of just altering the sequence of nucleic acids, it's altering the backbone and three-dimentional structure of the DNA itself! How can something function like that? There's no way for proteins to bind to the DNA properly without the grooves, there'd be no way to regulate gene expression, and how would it fold around the histones like that? You would need a whole new set of proteins and enzymes to process this!"

"Sorry," Leo said shaking his head, "I meant the English translation." Donnie looked over to Leo, still not hearing him.

"I think I know why it's been so hard to create a retro mutagen. All this time, I've been trying to restore the correct genomic sequence that had been disrupted, but if the mutagen's done damage to the backbone and structure too. . . But how could it do that?" Turning back to the pictures, Donnie started absorbing everything, theorizing to himself.

Realizing that Donnie was lost to him, Leo left him in the shed and called Raph.

"What now? Something happen?" Raph's voice crackled over the line.

"Donnie's ooze scanner finally gave us a good reading," Leo gave him the address of the building, "get over here, we'll need help getting it all back to the lair."

As Leo hung up, he felt a presence nearby. His instincts took over and he melded into the shadows, out of sight, before he could even register what was going on. The door to the roof opened and lady Leo guessed was in her late forty's stepped out. She had short, greying hair, and looked almost like a business woman of sorts. Glancing around nervously, she scurried over to the shed.

 _Donnie's still in there_ , Leo thought in panic as the lady approached. As he was about to move, he felt a hand touch his shoulder and nearly screamed. He glared at Donnie who had evidently been aware of their guest and had time to sneak out.

"She must be the one who's done all this research," Donnie whispered.

The lady inspected the lock on the shed door that the guys had left unlocked.

 _Oops_ , Leo thought.

She looked around again, with tension in her eyes, she wrenched the door open and rushed into the shed to take stock of her precious work. She saw that nothing was missing and sighed in relief. But worry flooded her face again and she started carefully taking down all of the notes she had taped to the walls, piling them into the large duffle bag she had brought with her. Once she was done with the wall hangings, she proceeded to pile in the binders and files that littered the ground. When the bag was full, the lady stuffed the rest of the files into an empty box she found lying in the corner. She struggled to lift the bag on her shoulder and carry the box at the same time.

As she left, she looked back at the glowing canisters with longing in her eyes. She didn't want to leave them alone when she knew that someone had already broken in once already, but her research notes were more important, and she couldn't bring all of the canisters with her anyways. She stood contemplating for a few minutes before balancing one canister precariously on top of the already full box before leaving, the door to the roof slamming shut behind her.

"Now what?" Donnie asked after he was sure they were alone, "We can't just leave her with a canister of mutagen and all that brilliant research. Who knows what could happen?"

"I know, I know," Leo said thinking, "But we can't just leave the rest of the mutagen here alone."

Leo noticed a dark shadow creeping up behind Donnie. He tensed, ready for a fight, but relaxed when he recognized the looming figure.

"—Aaah!" Donnie jumped as Mikey pounced from shadows.

"Haa haha," Mikey laughed, "Gotcha D." He flipped away as Donnie tried to hit him.

"So where's this jackpot you hit?" Raph asked appearing beside Leo.

"Great timing," Leo said, "There're canisters in the shed, you guys take care of them while we chase after a runaway. Come on Donnie, we can still catch up with her." With that, Leo and Donnie were off to the next rooftop before Raph could process what was happening.

They spotted the lady on the street a few blocks away, loading the box and duffle bag into the trunk of a car, but keeping the canister of mutagen with her. She slammed the trunk shut and gazed back towards the shed where she had left the rest of her research and materials. She contemplated going back for the rest of the canisters, but glanced at her watch. She had already spent too much time here as it was. She couldn't stay, but she hated to leave the rest back where anyone could find it. These were dangerous chemicals, and it could lead to disaster if someone were to unknowingly come into contact with it, or release it from its confines.

 _Clatter_!

A noise from the ally makes the woman jump. She watched as a cat scurried away into the shadows. Now frightened, the woman forgets the rest of the canisters, hops into her car and drives off down the road, revealing the man hole that the car had parked over.

Leo emerged from the ally, feeling bad for scaring the cat off, "Did you get it?"

"Shell yeah," Donnie said pushing up the man hole cover and climbed out of the sewers, "Trackers on her car, now we'll know where ever she goes."

"What do you think that was about? Where did she get all that mutagen?" Leo asked once they were safely in the shadows again.

"I don't know, but from those notes she had, I gather that she was deciphering the chemical breakdown of the mutagen and detailed chemical reactions in how it splices the DNA and forces new cell tissue to grow!"

"Come again," Leo said lost all over again.

"A step by step process on how the mutagen works along with what it's made of."

"Can it help you make a retro-mutagen?"

"I'd say so, it's exactly what me and Laura have been trying to unravel."

"Let's meet up with Raph and Mikey and see what's left in the shed."

* * *

 **A/N** : Who is this mysterious woman? Where did she come from? Where did she get the mutagen? This all relates back to one of the points in the 2k12 verse that they totally left hanging in the show, and it really ticks me off that they did. Can anyone guess where this is all heading? Who is this mysterious scientist lady? To be revealed in Chapter 5.


	4. Chapter 4-Ice Cream for the Soul

**A/N:** Alright, this should be the last of the whole _relationship_ /l _ove_ girl talk. Finally. Please feel free to let me know how dull and horrible the whole thing is. I know explosions and fight scenes are infinitely more interesting than two girls talking about "feelings", but it has to happen.

* * *

 **Chapter 4** : Ice Cream for the Soul

"Thanks," April said softly as she scooped up a spoonful of creamy, chocolaty goodness. "I don't really have another girl to talk about this sort of stuff with."

"Well, I'm not saying I'm the best at this whole romantic love stuff, but I am a pretty good listener," Laura sat on the opposite side of the booth. She had brought April to a small dinner in a secluded part of town, telling stories about the best sundaes and pies in the city. The perfect snack for a girl talk. There were only two other groups in the diner with them.

April sighed and propped her cheek on her hands, leaning on the table, her spoon dangling from her mouth "I don't know. It's just . . . I like Donnie, I really do. But it's just—"

"He's a mutant?" Laura pointed out the obvious issue.

"Does that make me superficial?"

Laura thought about this, "I don't think it does. When it comes to love, like I said I'm not all that experienced. But in my opinion, you should date someone who you think you want to spend the rest of your life with. If you want to be serious about this, you have to think about what the future would hold, if that makes any sense. And I think you would be giving up a lot. But on the other hand, he is a great guy. He sweet and adorable, he'd do just about anything for you, and he wears a purple head band. I mean, come on, it takes a real man to wear purple."

April laughed, as she scooped up another glob of ice cream. The sweet flavour nipped at her tongue as it melted in her mouth. "But then there's this other guy, Casey, I met when I transferred schools. I signed up for extra credit, and he turned out to be the guy I'm tutoring. He was kind of a jerk at first, but he's cool and laid back. Doesn't want to live a normal life at all. When we were attacked by the Foot bots at the skating rink, he just laughed and shot a hockey puck at their faces!"

"So you're saying that he's weird enough to be part of your abnormal life?" Laura asked.

"Something like that," April thought, "I think he would be able to accept all the weirdness in my life if he knew. But, I kind of want something normal in my life too, even if it's a hockey obsessed nutcase who wants to be a bounty hunter."

"Nothing wrong with normal," Laura agreed, "I'm wishing my life was a little more normal right now."

"I don't know what to do," April admitted, her eyes downcast.

"Nor should you," Laura laughed waving her spoon in the air, "But the upside is, you've got your whole life to figure it out. Love is complicated and just makes things infinitely more complicated than they should be. It's not something you can figure out over a sundae and a good talk. It'll take time to figure out what you think is best, and you're still young and all."

"You sound like you know what you're talking about," April said, admiring the ease at which Laura could talk about this stuff.

"Me? Hah! That's rich," Laura smiled again, "No, I really don't. When it comes to love, like I said, it's complicated. And I really don't know what I'm talking about. I've never even had a boyfriend before, so don't go expecting any advice learned from experience."  
"You've never had a boyfriend?!" April was surprised at this, "But, you're so likable! I didn't like you half an hour ago, and now I'm eating ice cream with you, spilling my guts out about my love life. How can you never have had a boyfriend before?"

"Right one's never asked," Laura said simply. "There have been a few guys I've sort of liked, but . . . I don't know. I think I've just lost interest in the idea of getting a boyfriend. I mean sure, if the right guy appears, that'd be cool. But I'm not out looking for one. I also think that I'll be fine without a significant other. I work best alone, figure everything out by myself. I honestly don't know if I really want a boyfriend."

"And how's that working out for you?" April asked skeptically.

"Well . . . I've never really been lonely, always had my family here in New York to fall back on if I needed someone. But it makes me wonder sometime, what if I had my own family. What if I was a mother? Honestly, that scares the crap out of me."

"You're scared?"

"Hell's yeah! But I don't worry too much about it. In any case, we aren't here to discuss my lack of a love life, we're here to discuss yours. But first, I think I need some pie." Laura waved over the waitress, an older woman with black hair, streaked with grey pulled into a small bun.

"Pie please," Laura smiled sweetly. The lady looked critically at Laura, eyeing her mostly demolished sundae.

"And what of your diet, young lady?" The waitress asked giving Laura a disapprovingly playful look.

"The only diet I'm on is the one that makes me happy. Right now, it calls for pie."

"You're gonna be up all night with all this sugar in your system," the waitress walked away shaking her head. The cook behind the counter smiled and shook his head at the woman's conversation.

"You know her?" April asked. She noticed that the staff in this diner were rather familiar with Laura. April figured that Laura stopped by here a lot.

"She's my mom," Laura replied matter of factly. April almost dropped her spoon.

"Your mom?" April glanced back at the waitress who was fetching a coffee pot to refill a cup at one of the other tables.

"Yep," Laura said, scooping up another spoonful of her sundae. There wasn't much left of hers, while April's was only half gone and starting to melt. April felt a little jealous of Laura again. April never knew her mother, but she pushed the feeling away.

"You don't really look alike," April noticed.

"Tim got most of mom's looks," Laura said, licking off her spoon before diving in to get more.

"What about your dad?" April asked. A sour look passed over Laura's face.

"He's not around anymore," Laura left her spoon in her sundae cup and looked out the window at the passing cars. "He left a long time ago."  
April picked up on her reluctance to talk about it, so she let the subject drop. Guess she didn't have her whole family either.

Laura's mom returned to their booth and placed a big slice of blueberry pie topped with whipped cream in front of each girl.

"Thanks, mom," Laura smiled again, picking up a fork.

"Who's your new friend?" Laura's mom asked smiling at April.

"This is April O'Neil. April, mom," Laura introduced her.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," April said, extending a hand.

"Hello April," she shook her hand, "you can call me Marcy. I hope this one hasn't been filling your head with too much junk," Marcy gave Laura a look.

"Just some much needed girl talk," April admitted.

"Girl talk? Well, I don't know how much help this one can be," Marcy nudged Laura's shoulder, "Maybe if she would get a boyfriend I could finally have some grandchildren."

Laura rolled her eyes at the insinuation and shoveled a piece of pie into her mouth. Marcy left to attend her other tables.

"She seems nice," April commented.

"She works too much," Laura replied.

 **OoOoO**

"That was awesome," April said later as the two girls walked out of the diner.

"I know right," Laura agreed, "Best deserts in the city."

April checked the time, "Oh man, it's pretty late. I should get home before my aunt starts to worry."

"You stay with your aunt?"

"Yeah, after what happened to my dad, she's letting me stay at her place until we can get him back."

"Oh that's right," Laura said, as the girls started walking, "He got mutated or something right?" Grape had mentioned it when they were discussing side effects of the mutagen over the phone.

"Yeah. I don't know where he is, but he's somewhere in the city, I know that for sure."

"Well, he'll turn up eventually. And when he does, me and Grape'll have a cure. I guess I'm not just working _my_ family here."

"Thanks, Laura," April said, smiling at the older girl.

"Well," Laura said as they approached an intersection, and pointed off to the left, "This is where I turn off." Laura paused a moment, tapping the toe of her shoe against the sidewalk, "So . . . are we cool?"

April realized what Laura was doing, and she felt a little guilty for the way she acted earlier in the lair. April smiled up at the older girl, "Yeah, thanks for everything."

Laura relaxed a bit and stopped her tapping, "Anytime, Spring."

"Spring?" April asked.

"Well," Laura said, smiling nervously, "I figured since all the guys got nicknames, why not you too."

"And where did you get 'Spring'? So I have a bouncy personality or something?"

"Naw," Laura said chuckling, "Didn't think of that one. I was thinking that spring starts in April, and everything starts to grow back after the long, cold winter, or something corny like that."

"I like that," April admitted, warming up to her nickname.

"I thought it was pretty good."

"Are you going to stop by the lair again tomorrow?" April asked. Despite everything, she now saw Laura as a sort of confidant, who she could blab about all her girl problems to.

"No, I probably won't be by again for a while. Unless something good happens, I would rather keep to myself. No offense, but this whole thing with ninjas and mutants and aliens is all more than I want to get involved in. I'd rather keep my distance if I can. Don't wanna bring anything back home to my family."

"I got cha. So when will I see you again?"

"Tell you what," Laura pulled out her cell phone, "I'll give you my number, and if you wanna get together, let me know."

"Cool," April took Laura's phone as they swapped numbers. When April was handing the phone back, she caught a glimpse of her screen saver; a picture of a younger Laura and a small boy, must be Timothy, wrestling together on a lawn of grass. Laura had a big triumphant smile on her face as she sat atop of her younger brother, and Tim had his face set with determination, still trying to get the best of her. April smiled at the memory, realizing how much Laura's brother meant to her.  
Laura caught her looking and blushed a bit. "He may be an idiot, but he's my idiot." Laura turned around and headed off. "See ya around, Spring," she called over her shoulder as she hurried across the street.

 _She's a good person,_ April told herself. _She really cares about her family, and is just trying to do the same thing I am; get her family back together. I'm so stupid for being jealous in the first place._

April looked up at the night time sky, lost in thought. Then out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a slight movement on the rooftops.

"Some ninjas," she said aloud as she made out the figures of Leo and Donnie jumping across the buildings. Since they were here, she might as well join them for the rest of their patrol.

* * *

 **A/N:** Another chapter done. Now, next chapter is where it all starts getting exciting, no more romance crap (hopefully).  Reminder: can anyone guess who the unknown scientist lady from the previous chapter is? Here's a hint: she's not a specific character but part of a group mentioned in previous episodes of the show. And I'll make you guys a deal. I'm going on vacation for Christmas and won't be back until boxing day, but if someone can guess what group she's a part of, I'll post the next chapter early. Good luck.


	5. Chapter 5- I've got no good title

**A/N:** Alright here we go again. Back on Boxing Day like I promised. And in this chapter it is revealed who the mystery lady is from chapter 3. And congratulations to . . . absolutely no one, for guessing right. Don't know how I feel about that one. Anyways, on with the show . . . chapter. Whatever.

* * *

 **Chapter 5:** I've got no good title for this chapter

"It is well, it is well . . . with, my soul," Laura sang to Bethel's song underneath her breath as she made her way down the street. She had to make one stop before she returned to the small apartment she called home now a days.

She came up to a building that was small for New York, but big enough to serve its purpose. Large, glowing letters spelled out the company's name, _Pin Tech_ , above the front door. This is the lab where Laura had gotten a part time job while she was in town. In exchange for her help now and then, Professor Sandrum let her use the equipment for her more personal projects, ie. fixing Tim, not that he had any idea what she was really doing.

From her discussion with Grape earlier that day, they decided on a series of tests they should run next. Laura was going to set up the first one now, let it run over night and get the results the next morning. The worst part about most biological tests is that they take forever to run.

It was relatively late, and Laura wasn't surprised to see the lobby area to be deserted. There was no secretary on the clock, but Laura knew her way around. She soon found herself in the same lab where her and Prof. Sandrum first met. She grabbed a lab coat off a set of hooks to one side of the door and put on a pair of clear, plastic, safety glasses. Then she got to work.

She gathers the materials she needed; a set of micropipettes of varying sizes, a bag of microcentrifuge tubes, a vortex, etc. She then busied herself with setting up the reactions.

5µL of forward primer

247µL of magnesium chloride

60µL of mutagen sample

500µL of buffer solution

188µL of distilled water to bring the solution up to 1mL

She added the solutions to the tube, and capped it shut. She held it in the vortex for a minute to mix and set it in the incubator at 37°C.

Laura stretched, yawning. She checked the time, it was way later than she wanted it to be so she started putting everything away. The silence in the empty lab was almost deafening, so Laura made quick work of the mess. She slid the last box of pipette tips into the drawer when she remembered something else.

 _Suppose I should check on those colonies,_ Laura thought, referring to the bacteria she was growing and looked at her watch, _Eh, who needs sleep? It's overrated anyways._

She opened the door to the incubator and pulled out her petri dishes filled with various types of agar. She sighed in frustration as she laid out the plates on a table and counted the colonies of bacteria for her observations . . . or she would be counting colonies if there were any to count. This was the eleventh time she's tried to grow these colonies, but it never seems to work, no matter what environment she exposes them too.

 _I guess the mutation is too damaging,_ Laura thought to herself again. This was a project that she had been working on back in Baltimore. Her prof, Doc Lands, had sent over her samples and previous data from tests she had run back on campus. She was experimenting with an unknown physical mutagens and its effects on DNA repair systems. One mutation in particular was giving her problems. It was supposed to knock out one protein used in repair that could easily be fixed by compounds provided in the agar she was growing the bacteria on. But every time she tried, nothing grew. It was really starting to annoy her, but she had bigger problems.

"Well, who cares about you anyways," Laura told the plates as she put them back in the incubator, not that she expected anything to grow on them. "I've got my bro to think about, not some crappy mutagen that doesn't work the way I want it to."

"Laura?" The voice interrupted Laura's thoughts and she jumped in surprise.

"Gah! Prof Sandrum," Laura relaxed when she saw who had snuck up on her. First Grape no the Prof. This was getting to be annoying. Everyone kept scaring her when she was trying to think!

"It's late, what are you doing here?" The urgency in the Professor's voice was apparent; she wasn't supposed to be here. That's when Laura noticed that Prof Sandrum wasn't alone. A man she didn't recognize had followed the Professor into the lab. He was a larger man, with short black hair and a long face with slightly Asian features. He stood stiffly behind the professor, looking over Laura with a stoic expression.

"I was just setting up a reaction I was gonna let incubate over night," Laura explained quickly, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were having a meeting this late. I'm just finishing up, give me a second to get out of your hair." Laura started taking off her lab coat.

"Human," the man behind the Prof said in a robotic voice that sent chills up Laura's spine, "Kraang would like to be informed as to what knowledge the one known as the Assistant in knowing about the mutagen."

"Human?" Laura asked before realizing something even more terrifying, "Wait, Kraagn?! Like the alien guys?" Thoughts rushed though her head, wondering who this man was, whether he was in league with the aliens. Laura cursed her reluctance to know more about the city's secrets. She knew that it was these Kraang aliens that had brought the mutagen from their dimension, but she knew practically nothing about the aliens themselves.

She studied the unfamiliar man, then realized she had seen him in passing on a few occasions over the times she's been coming here. Was he helping the aliens? Why is the Professor meeting with him?

"Aliens?" Prof Sandrum looked shocked, "How do you . . ."

"Shit," Laura backed away, realizing she just gave herself away.

The man stepped towards her, "The one known as the Assistant will tell Kraang the knowledge that you are knowing about Kraang and how you came to know the knowledge that is the knowledge of Kraang."

 _How am I getting out of this one?_ Laura thought desperately. He must have heard her talking to the petri dishes about how the mutagen wasn't working the way it was supposed to and assumed that she was talking about the mutagen that they brought to Earth. Then Laura had to go and open her big mouth and let them know that she knew about the Kraang. She didn't know much, mind you, but she said enough to get their attention.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing. If they're the ones who know the most about the mutagen . . . And then there's the Professor. Laura knew he was experimenting with different kinds of mutagen too. Maybe the project he was working on wasn't focused around a mutagen found on Earth.

"Wait," Laura brings her hands up, stopping the man's advance. "I know about the ooze. Green glowing stuff in crappy glass canisters that can shatter at any time."

Prof Sandrum opened his mouth in disbelief, "How would . . ."

"We've been working on this together for a bit, Prof," Laura said. "I saw some of your notes, and realized what you were working with." She didn't add that she only figured it out ten seconds ago, but he didn't need to know that. "And I can help."

She was really bull shitting her way through this one now. What was it that Grape always said? "The mutagen's unstable, right? And you've been trying to fix that." The man eyed her, his expression remained stoic and emotionless. "I can help. I know just about as much as the Prof here about the mutagen." Laura hoped she was getting through to this guys, if only he would show some sort of emotion!

The man just stood there watching Laura as he was . . . actually, Laura didn't know what he was doing. Was he thinking it over? Was he thinking about the best way to silence her? Was he calling in his alien buddies to deal with the whole thing? Wait, how would he be calling someone? He hasn't moved. If he would only move! He just keeps staring!

The man then scares Laura when he reaches out and roughly grabs her arm, "The place known as _Pin Tech_ has proven to be that which is known as compromised. The necessary action of Kraang will be to move the operation known as the mutagen's stabilization to the place known as Kraang's secret facility until the project is that which is known as complete."

Alright, seems like the guy bought it. Laura is in. Downside, looks like she's not getting out anytime soon.

"Here we go again," Laura mumbles to herself as she manages to grab her backpack before she and the Prof are ushered out of the lab and into the back of a van that was waiting outside.

 **O o O**

"April," Leo greeted the red head as she climbed onto the roof where the four turtles had met up again. "Glad you could make it."

"What's with ditching us," Raph asked not too kindly.

"Just getting to know the new girl," April explained vaguely, not wanting to confess how she had pretty much spilled her guts out to someone she had just met.

"And?" Mikey asked, "she's pretty awesome right?"

"Yeah," April admitted, "She _is_ pretty awesome."

"You should see her with her ruler," Mikey continued, "And how fast Raph can run from her. Heh heh, good times." Mikey chucked to himself as Raph glared at him.

"Anyways," April interrupted, "have you found anything?"

"Oh, you're not gonna believe this," Leo said, smiling. He led her over to the beaten up shed, pushing open the creaky door. April gasped as she was greeted with the glowing canisters that were all lined up nicely against one wall. She counted nine canisters in all.

"How did you manage to find all of this in one night?" She asked bewildered.

"Apparently we aren't the only ones experimenting with the mutagen," Donnie said as he and Leo explained what had happened to April, Raph and Mik—okay, well to April and Raph. Mikey had lost interest and found a way to occupy himself, playing with the canisters of mutagen by stacking them into a tower.

"So we've still got one canister on the loose," Leo finished, "but Donnie managed to place a tracker on the lady's car."

"Right now, it's stopped at the outskirts of town," Donnie said, checking his tracker app on his T-Phone. "She might be moving everything to a new hideout, maybe some sort of lab."

"But why do you think she's moving everything," Raph asked.

"Maybe she's being chased by zombies," Mikey pitched, looking up from his tower. "I read this comic once where the zombies were created by this mystery ooze and they were all chasing this guy who had a big stash of the stuff because tasted really good with brains-."

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard," Raph said, cutting him off and getting right up in Mikey's face. When Mikey didn't back down, Raph knocked over his tower. Mutagen canisters clattered to the group, scattering a glowing light around the small shed.

One canister rolled into the corner. "Cut it out guys," Donnie said, retrieving it, "You could crack one." Behind one of the empty, overturned boxes, the glow from the ooze revealed a thick file that the lady had left behind. "Hey guys, check it out."

He opened the file and started glancing through the pages. "Like I thought, that lady was unraveling the molecular structure of the mutagen along with how it works."

"We know how it works," Raph said, "you pour it on something, and it mutates it."

Donnie simply rolled his eyes, not bothering to point out how simplistic that was.

"Hey, is that her name?" April pointed to a signature at the bottom of one of the pages, "Alice Kennington? I think I've heard that name before."

"Really?" Leo said, "From where?"

"Give me a second," April said, scrunching up her face in thought. Donnie smiled at how cute April looked when she was thinking. "Wait, wasn't Alice Kennington one of the missing scientists that the Kraang kidnapped a while back?"

"Hey, I think you're right," Donnie agreed, recalling a list of missing scientists that from the previous year.

"Hey, we never did find out what happened to all of those guys," Mikey piped up again, "I mean, we sort of let the whole thing drop after we got April's dad back."

"I thought they all escaped when we took out the Technodrome," Raph said.

"I'm sure they did," Leo said, "I mean, this Alice person did, right? That must be where she got the mutagen from."

"You think she stole it from the Kraang when she escaped?" April asked.

"I think it would be more likely that she started collecting them after the spill," Donnie said. "I mean, I can't see how she would be able to bring this many canisters with her while trying to escape at the same time. When all those canisters fell, she must have recognized them. Maybe she was collecting them so no one else would get mutated."

"Either way," Leo said, "if she knows about the Kraang, maybe she knows about a way to stop them, and what they're up to."

"Duh, we know what their doing," Mikey said, "they're trying to take over the world. Honestly dude, think these things through."

Leo glared at Mikey until Raph smacked him over the head.

"Ouch," Mikey complained.

"Thanks," Leo said.

"No problem," Raph replied.

"Now let's find Alice Kennington," Leo declared.

"But what about the mutagen?" Donnie asked, stopping them all in their tracks. They all looked towards the shed and its ominous glow. "We can't just leave it here."

"Alright, then we split up," Leo said thinking things through, "Raph, you and Mikey bring the canisters back to the lair. Me, Donnie and April will find Alice Kennington."

"What?" Raph said, "But I've been stuck with Mikey all night! Make Donnie go."

"Hey!" Mikey said.

"I'm the one with the tracker," Donnie pointed out, waving his T-Phone.

Raph growled as the others turned around and started to leave.

"Just don't crack open any canisters," Leo warned as he jumped to the adjacent building following Donnie as he led the way.

"No duh," Raph said even though Leo couldn't hear him any more. He turned back to the shed and saw that in the short amount of time that the others had left, Mikey had managed to reconstruct his mutagen tower. He was holding the last canister and was carefully placing it on the top, his tongue sticking out in concentration. Raph rolled his eyes and swiped the canister out of his hands.

"Hey!" Mikey said again as his tower collapsed for a second time.

"Come on, genius," Raph said as he piled canisters into his arms.

* * *

 **A/N** : So the mysterious lady turned out to be one of the missing scientists from season 1. It's always bugged me that we never really see any of them, and like Mikey so kindly points out in this chapter, they are kind of forgotten about after Kirby gets rescued.

In other notes, it seems that Laura's gotten herself kidnapped again! But this time by the Kraang. How will she get herself out of this one?


	6. Chapter 6-New Allies

**Chapter 6** : New Allies

"That's the one," Donnie pointed to a run down warehouse from their vantage point across the street. The area was deserted, but that had nothing to do with the late hour. This was a part of town that rarely saw much activity, which was rare for New York City. The surrounding buildings were run down and falling apart. There was garbage strewn about the streets and graffiti decorated the walls of almost every building.

The warehouse that the signal was coming from looked no different from the other buildings. It had no windows, one padlocked door, and one garage door for deliveries that would never come.

"You sure this is the one," Leo asked skeptically eyeing the colourfully painted walls and the rusted door.

"She must have driven her car in through the garage door," Donnie said, "Look, you can see the tire tracks."

"So what's she doing bringing research notes and mutagen out to the middle of nowhere?" April asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Donnie said. "Alright Leo, what's the plan."

"Break in, scope the place out, grab the mutagen," Leo replied simply. "Let's move."

 **Oo0oO**

Alice Kennington was busy at work, trying to back up of all of her research that she managed to save from the shed. It was a long process due to the sheer amount of documents that she had to scan in to save digitally. She had been at it a while already, and was no closer to the end. But she had to keep going, she couldn't risk losing her research.

It was quiet except for the humming of the computers and scanners, even that felt too loud. It didn't help that Alice was paranoid beyond belief, so much so that when she heard the door to the warehouse squeak open, she panicked and drew the gun she kept concealed in her waistband.

"Woah, Alice!" an urgent voice said from the door way, "It's just me."

"Ben?" Alice recognized the man who stood in the door way. He was a stocky man with greying dark blond hair and round glasses. "I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow. I almost shot you!"

"We have a problem," the man, Ben, said bolting the door behind him. "They're onto us and they've moved their top scientist to one of their secret labs. I can't keep tabs on them anymore."

"What do we do now?" Alice asked.

"We'll have to move. I'll see if I can't find where they're conducting their experiments. Did you get everything you need?"

"I couldn't bring back all the mutagen. And I think someone found the shed, it was open when I got there. Nothing was missing but, Ben, do you think the Kraang found it? Have they found us?"

"I don't know, we're being careful, but that may not matter—"

 _Clatter._

The two adults froze, and Alice brought her gun up again, aiming into the dark corners of the warehouse. Ben also pulled out a gun from inside his jacket, although he was more calm. He motioned for Alice to stay where she was, and he slowly moved toward the source of the sound.

His eyes studied the dark shadows, looking for any sign of movement. But everything was still. He reached the place where the sound came from, and picked up a broom stick that had fallen to the floor. That's when he saw movement.

In a flash, he reached out and grabbed whoever was hiding in the shadows and pulled them into the light.

"Hey!" It was a girl. A teenaged girl, around fourteen or fifteen years old with fiery red hair pulled into a ponytail. She glared at Ben fiercely before twisting around and kicking him in the gut.

"Unng," Ben stumbled back, clutching his stomach. The girl took the chance to try and slip into the shadows again. But she had only taken a few steps when an ear splitting shot rang out, echoing around the warehouse.

"Don't move," Alice said sternly, her gun still smoking, and shaking slightly, "Who are you?" The girl froze in place; the bullet had passed just a few inches short of her head. The girl looked at Alice, an expression of surprise more than fear on her face. Alice in turn studied the girl. She seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place her.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed behind Alice and her gun was wrenched away from her before she even knew what happened. She stumbled and fell to her knees. There were more intruders?

Alice looked up at her assailant and pure, cold fear ran through her veins. It was a mutant, and he looked mad. He stood around the height of an average human, with green skin, a large shell, and was holding a really long stick like a weapon. From his stance, she didn't doubt he knew how to use it.

Alice looked to Ben for help, but saw he was in a similar situation. Another mutant had managed to disarm him also and now pointed a sword at his face, daring him to try something.

"Easy guys," the girl said, "I'm alright." The mutants seemed to relax slightly at her reassurance, but didn't let their guard down.

Alice turned her attention back to the red haired girl. Who was she to be protected by such creatures? That's when it clicked.

"You're April O'Neil," Alice realized with something close to awe. That caused the mutants to shift uneasily. Recognition filled Ben's face as he looked at her.

"Oh my God, you're right," Ben said and tried to move closer, but the mutants with the swords blocked his path. Ben raised his hands, showing he meant no harm.

"How do you know who I am," April asked, confused.

"How could we not?" Ben said, "You're the one the Kraang have been after."

"And who are you?" one of the mutants, the one with the sword, asked Ben.

"My name is Benjamin Torst," Ben explained, "And you must be part of the resistance group that's been fighting against the Kraang."

"The Turtles?" Alice was confused, "You mean they're actual turtles?"

"Technically, we're human-turtle hybrids," the turtle with the stick explained, "so we're not one hundred percent tur—"

"Not now Donnie," the other mutant interrupted him. The mutant, Donnie, deflated a bit. "How do you know about us," the sword mutant demanded.

"I've been monitoring the Kraang for years now," Ben explained.

"Monitoring how?"

"Through their Communication Orbs," Ben explained. "After years of trial and error, I managed to translate their language and hack into their network. Since then, I've been monitoring their progress, intercepting their messages, even managed to alter some, change orders, give false plans, anything I can to slow them down in their conquest to take over the city. I know it's not enough to stop them, but it's the only thing I know I can do. I just wish I could do more."

"You hacked into the Kraang system?" the Donnie mutant asked.

"It took a long time but yes," Ben said calmly. "And I know from their reports that you are part of the resistance group that has managed to stop their invasion and have prevented them from succeeding in their plans to dominate the world. You're the Turtles, Leonardo and Donatello."

"So much staying anonymous," Donnie muttered.

 _The Turtles,_ Alice thought in amazement, _the people strong enough to fight against the Kraang!_ Alice had no doubt in her mind that she could trust these mutants, regardless of any past experiences. Standing in front of her was the hope of human kind. She was sure that her research would be put to good use in their hands and she knew Ben would agree with her.

"What about the shed full of mutagen," Leo asked, pulling Alice out of her thoughts.

"You know about the shed?" Ben asked surprised.

"Donnie's scanner picked it up, but before we could get a good look at everything, _you_ showed up," Leo turned to Alice, "we put a tracker on your car and followed you back here."

"So you were the ones who unlocked the door," Alice realized.

"What was that place?" Donnie asked, "More importantly, what were those research notes?"

"It's what I've been working on," Alice said turned to the computer screen, bringing up various documents, eager to share what she was doing. "Or at least what I managed to save. I've been trying to better understand how the mutagen works—"

"By unraveling its molecular structure and how its altering the genetic code," Donnie finished moving behind her to look at the screen. Alice looked up in surprise at him, then smiled. She then started to explain the nature of her research while Leo turned back to Ben, letting his brother revel in his nerd-dom.

"What were you saying earlier about the Kraang moving someone to a secret base?" Leo asked, recalling the conversation they had overheard from the shadows.

"The Kraang have managed to recruit some people to work on the mutagen of their own free will," Ben explained. "I've hacked into the company's security systems to monitor their progress, but something tipped them off because earlier tonight, they took their top scientist and his assistant to one of their facilities."

"Do you know which one?" Leo asked.

"Not exactly, but from what I've gathered, it's the same facility where they're keeping the rest of the scientists that they kidnapped."

"Any idea what tipped them off?"

"That was probably my fault," Ben replied sheepishly, "I was careless, one of my programs was detected and they tracked the IP address back to my safe house. That's why I came back here tonight, we have to hurry and move before—"

Ben didn't get any farther. A blasting crash filled the warehouse, drowning out all noise, leaving everyone's ears ringing.

". . . they find us." Ben finished, backing away and coughing as dust filled the air.

"The one known as the Hacker has been found by Kraang."

The familiar, ominous pink glow flooded in through the new hole in the wall as Kraang droids started to file through, blasters primed and ready.

"Damn it!" Ben cried, retrieving his gun and firing. He managed to hit his mark, slamming bullets into three different bots, fatal shots, or they would be if they weren't dealing with robots. Human guns aren't the most effective tool against alien robots from another dimension.

"Stay back," Leo commanded, drawing his twin katanas once again, "April, look after the humans, Donnie you're with me." Donnie twirled his staff and April whipped out her tessen, ready for action.

Leo jumped at the closest droid who raised his blaster and fired. Leo deflected three shots off his katanas before he was in range and spun around as his swords followed a deadly arc, easily splitting the machine into pieces. Donnie was right up there with his brother, dancing through the mob and slapping the enemies, keeping them back with the long reach of his staff.

Meanwhile, April guided Ben and Alice behind a stack of heavy crates the Kraang could not easily reach them, deflecting blaster fire aimed in their direction.

"Is there any way out?" April asked above the noise of laser fire and metal clashing on metal.

"Just the garage door," Ben pointed towards the other side of the room. They would have to sneak around the battle grounds, but luckily, the Kraang had blasted their entry hole on the opposite side. If they could navigate around the battle, they would have a clear line outside.

"Okay," April took charge, "stay close and stay low, use what you can as cover, and try not to draw attention."

"Wait," Alice spoke up, "We can't leave my research!" April looked over to the desk where Alice had been working. There were binders full of notes and data still waiting to be inputted into the system.

"We'll get them later," April insisted, "But first, we gotta get out of here."

"I'm not leaving wit—" Alice was interrupted by the arrival of a particularly large cannon blaster that had to be rolled into the warehouse through the newly blasted hole in the wall.

"Uhh, Donnie?" Leo said, noticing the new threat.

". . . I got nothing," Donnie admitted and backed away as the cannon started to power up, the barrel glowing with some type of unknown energy.

"Take cover!" Leo yelled.

Leo and Donnie leapt out of the way, and rolled across the floor in opposite directions and the cannon fired. It was devastating. The laser beam ripped through the warehouse and burnt away everything in its path . . . including the desk and computer that housed all of Alice Kennington's notes and research.

"No!" Alice yelled, jumping to her feet in distress.

"Get down!" April pulled her down again, but it was too late. Blaster fire started up again, this time aimed at the humans. "We've got to go _now_!" April insisted as she dragged Alice into a crouching run with Ben close behind.

Leo and Donnie got to their feet and covered them, bringing down Kraang-bots as they made their way to their cover their friends. They had all made it to the garage door and Ben was fiddling with the lock, but it seemed to be jammed. The group was put in a tight spot as the Kraang started to close in. They were trapped, but they weren't about to back down just yet.

Leo felt a buzzing in his belt, and looked down at his T-Phone ringing away. He then saw movement outside the hole in the wall.

"The ones known as the Turtles will hand over the one known as the Hacker and then be destroyed," one of the droids said, pointing his blaster Leo threateningly.

Leo smiled knowingly, "You sure about that?"

"BOOYAKASHA!"

The call was ear splitting and most of the Kraang turned to face the new threat, only to be greeted by a face full of nunchucks and a battering ram with sais. Raph and Mikey barged through the hole in the wall, weapons blazing.

 _Took them long enough_ , Leo thought as his brothers started demolishing Kraang.

The arrival of their brothers allowed for the perfect distraction. Leo and Donnie also attacked, trapping the mob between two teams of turtles on either end. Although their initial attack was highly effective, the enemy recovered and started returning fire, and the fight was on again.

April stayed back with Ben and Alice, deflecting stay shots and taking out any droids that got past the guys.

"Got it!" Ben suddenly exclaimed and the garage door slid upwards. April ushered the humans outside.

"Leo," April yelled back into the warehouse, "we're good to go."

Leo nodded to her, still focused on the enemy in front of him. A few more swings of his katanas dispatched of the robot he was facing, and he turned to check on his brothers. Donnie was still by his side, Mikey and Raph were in their own worlds, smashing through robots with big grins on their faces.

Leo hated to pull them away from their fun, but they couldn't risk staying too long. "Turtles, fall back," he yelled over the chaos of the battle, earning a groan from his battle happy brothers. Regardless, Mikey flipped over the group of droids and landed a few feet away from Leo, while Raph took the more direct route and just bulldozed his way through what remained of the mob.

With a nod, Leo began to retreat back towards their escape hole when he noticed someone was missing. "Donnie!" He was beside Leo just a second ago, where did he go?

"Just a sec," Donnie replied from the other side of the warehouse.

"What are you doing?" Leo demanded in frustration. Donnie ducked behind a crate as a new wave of blaster fire shot in his direction. Timing it perfectly, Donnie raced out from his cover and swung his staff in one hand, while clutching something in the other.

"Just retrieving what we initially came for," Donnie replied, holding up the canister of mutagen as he rejoined his brothers.

A whirring drew their attention back and they turned to problem at hand. The cannon was powering up again.

"Go go go!" Leo said, herding his team out the door as the cannon discharged. It blasted right through the garage door, leaving another smouldering hole in the warehouse _and_ the building across the street. The turtles just stared at the damage for a second before a van came ripping around the warehouse, coming to a screeching halt in front of them.

"Get in," Ben said as the side door slid open and April helped pull everyone in.

The Kraang emerged from the warehouse, now that the dust had settled and began firing at the receding van as it disappeared around a corner. Relief filled the van's passengers when the Kraang didn't appear to be following them.

"Now what?" Alice asked from the passenger seat to no one in particular. Her life's work had been destroyed, and there was nothing left for her to go off of. She would have to start over from the beginning. Months of work, down the drain.

"Do you have a safe place to stay?" Leo asked, crouching between the two front seats.

"I have few other safe houses set up around the city," Ben said. He took a left at the next intersection and started the long drive back into the city.

"Knock it off, Mikey," Leo heard Donnie say behind him and turned his attention back to his brothers. Donnie was lying on his back with his foot on Mikey's face who was reaching over to grab the mutagen that Donnie held away at a safe distance.

Rolling his eyes, Leo took the canister from Donnie and Mikey grinned sheepishly. No rest for the weary.

* * *

 **A/N** : Happy New Year 2016!


	7. Chapter 7- Truths

**Chapter 7** : Truths

Laura looked around at her 'new' lab. It was about the size of a class room, with white walls and bright lighting. There were work benches scattered throughout the room, many of them holding various plants at different stages of growth. And the equipment, it was a geneticists dream; high tech incubators of every kind, gel doc systems with probes that can detect the slightest of molecular bands, sequencing systems that can de-code an entire genome in only a day. A freaking day!

And one cannot forget to mention the main attraction, at least it drew Laura's attention. Just like in Bessy's lab back at the Foot hide out, dominating the middle of the room was the ever present, glowing vat of ominous, green, sparkly elixir. And although it was smaller than Bessy's, guess what it didn't have . . . a lid!

"Is a freaking lid really too much to ask for?" Laura mumbled under her breath. "It's just asking for trouble."

She brought herself out of her reverie, after a few minutes. There was work to do, and she was determined to find what she needed to restore her brother back to his former self. This was just like when she was kidnapped by the Foot all over again, except this time she had gone of her own free will. In this facility, there was information about the mutagen, the exact thing that she and Grape had been looking for these past few weeks. All she had to do was find it.

Laura spotted a computer on a desk that was nestled near the back of the lab, and claimed the spot as her own. She dropped her backpack on the ground beside it before pulling out a note book, an array of coloured pens, and her ever faithful ruler. In all honesty, it made her feel better knowing the little piece of wood was close.

She arranged her supplies on the desk for easy access while the alien computer hummed to life. She spent a few minutes familiarizing herself with the foreign programs and navigation, but she soon got the hang of it.

"How's the system handling," Professor Sandrum asked. He was the only other person in the lab with her, seems like they got the room to themselves. He was letting her familiarize herself with the past projects that had been done on the mutagen, since the first thing a scientist does before delving into a new project is research. And Laura was taking full advantage of that, using the time to look for any relevant information to help her brother.

"Peachy," Laura replied without looking up. Laura had become wary of Sandrum ever since she learned of his cooperation with the evil little brain blobs. She wasn't sure how much she should trust him; whether he was loyal to the Kraang or if he had alternative motives like she did. She decided to watch how things played out before deciding his place in this mess.

The room fell silent, except for Sandrum's rummaging as he organized the lab, and dealt with the samples that had been transferred from _Pin Tech_ , most of which were plants that took up most of the work benches.

Laura jotted some notes in her note book as she skimmed a report. She lost herself in the research of someone named Alice Kennington. She had come up with several theories about the mutagen's recombination process. She was just starting to test them when the reports stopped, indicating that the project remained incomplete. Laura sighed and leaned back in her chair, fingering the USB drive that still hung around her neck.

 _I wonder which it is . . ._ Laura mused as she thought over Kennington's theory.

 **Oo0oO**

"I can't believe I've lost everything," Alice mumbled to herself, her head in her hands. Ben moved to comfort her, placing a hand on her back. It was late, but they had managed to make it to Ben's safe house.

Since it was past April's curfew, they made sure to drop her off at home. After some debate and heated glares, the turtles convinced her to get out of the van and get some sleep. It had been a long night. April grumbled the whole while, making sure they promised to fill her in the next day.

After doing a sweep of the area and ensuring that the premises was secure, the four turtles and two humans soon found themselves in the small kitchen of a rundown apartment building in an anonymous part of town. Alice sat slumped in her chair at a wooden table, Ben stood behind her trying to comfort her. Mikey sat across from them, swinging his legs and thinking of all the things he could be doing that were more fun than sitting around and talking. Donnie stood behind Mikey making sure he stayed out of trouble. Raph was leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, unconsciously staying in the shadows. Leo stood beside the only window in the room, scanning the streets below for any possible threats.

"Don't worry Alice," Ben said, "I'm sure we can retrieve it."

"Not unless we can break into the Kraang's lab and make a copy," Alice declared, looking up at him. "That's the only other place where everything has been documented. On top of that, the facility where I saved everything has been destroyed, so there's no guarantee that any of it even _exists_ anymore." Alice collapsed into a pile on the table. "I'll have to start all over. Moths of work, reduced to nothing."

"Maybe not," Donnie said. Everyone turned to look at him. "What about that file we found?"

"What file?" Alice asked lifting her head off the table.

"There was one left behind in the shed," Leo remembered, then looked over at Raph, "Do we still have it?"

"It's back at the lair with the mutagen," Raph said.

"But which one?" Alice asked hopefully, "Do you remember the number on the front?"

"I think it was number three," Donnie said, recalling the detail no one else would have cared to even notice.

Alice sighed, and her shoulders relaxed a little. "It's not much, but it's a start," she said quietly.

"With that out of the way," Leo said stepping toward the table, leaving Raph to keep lookout beside the window, "I think some questions are in order, starting with how you escaped from the Kraang, Mrs. Kennington. You _are_ one of the scientists that they kidnapped, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Alice said quietly, recalling the troubling event. "It was the night of their invasion. The Kraang were all distracted, and they left everyone they captured pretty much unguarded. We each had our own rooms where we worked on our own projects, but they all had the same safety measures." Alice took a deep breath as she relived her nightmare, but managed to gather the courage to continue.

"One of the others, an engineer I think, he managed to create a device that unlocked the doors and deactivate the alarms. He made sure to set us all free, there were eight of us in total. But after that, it was anyone's guess as to how to find a way out. We had never been let out of those rooms, so we had no idea how the rest of the facility was laid out.

"We started wandering around, looking for a way out when the alarms went off. We didn't know what had happened, and most of us started to panic, despite the fact that there were no Kraang around. Some ran off in an attempt to find a way out, one of which was me. I'm not entirely sure what happened after that, but the next thing I remember, I'm outside and I'm alone. And then the whole place blew up. I don't know what happened to the others, whether they were captured again or killed . . ."

Alice went quiet after that, distraught for the comrades she left behind. Ben was quick to pick up on her mood and took over.

"I found Alice a few blocks away from the facility where they kept her," Ben explained. "I picked up a transmission from the Orb about their invasion plans, and went out to do try and do something about it. Instead, I found Alice. I've helped her stay hidden and continue her research to try and find a way to reverse what the mutagen has been doing."

"And who are you, exactly?" Leo asked. "And how did you manage to get involved with the Kraang? No offense, but you were a little vague before."

"Yes, I suppose I was," Ben agreed with a small smile. "Alright then. Like I said, my name is Benjamin Torst. I used to be a computer programmer, specialized in designing communication software. I guess it was around fifteen years ago now when I discovered who was really running the company I worked for."

Ben was silent for a few minutes before continuing. "I was working late one night, I lost track of time and realized that I was the only one left in the building. As I was leaving, I heard something from one of the rooms that was supposed to be off-limits to pretty much everyone, especially that time of night. Curiosity got the better of me and I went to have a look."

"Let me guess," Raph spoke up for the first time, "You found some Kraang."

"Yes," Ben said, "But at the time, all I saw was a couple of men I didn't know sifting through the databases and equipment that no one was supposed to have access to. I managed to sneak out without them seeing me. But I didn't know what to make of it all, so I started poking around in some of the more secure databases at the company. What I found turned my world upside down."

"Kraang," Mikey said, drawing out the word dramatically.

"Where did you work?" Donnie asked suddenly, "I mean, what sort of company has databases about the Kraang?"

"TCRI," Ben said with a humourless smile.

"That would do it," Raph mumbled, matter-o-factly.

"I tried to be carful, but it didn't take long for them to discover what I was doing, and they weren't happy about it," Ben continued his story, "I managed to evade capture, and have been hiding ever since, gaining knowledge, hacking into their communication system, building safe houses. My only regret is that I had to leave my family so suddenly . . ." Ben's voice faded with his revelation. The room elapsed into silence as everyone absorbed what was said.

A beeping noise cut through the silence, snapping the turtles on alert. They looking around, trying to identify the threat. After a few seconds, Ben realized what was happening and rushed over to another room, where the noise was coming from.

Following him in, the turtles saw that the room was filled with different computer equipment. There were wires snaking along the floor and walls, connecting various machines to each other and feeding information to various monitors, which flashed with messages encrypted in another language. But the most remarkable thing in the room was resting on one of the tables on its own little pedestal. It was a large, round, white ball . . . a Kraang communication orb. It lit up with little pink dots, making patterns of circles along its surface as it received a new transmission.

Ben's hands flew over the keyboard as he set to translating the message. Donnie moved into the room and watched over Ben's shoulder as the translated version came up. Reading through it quickly, Donnie's eyes grew wide as familiar names started popping up across the screen.

"What is it, Mr. Torst?" Leo asked, sensing his brothers surprise.

"It's just a report of the night's activity," Ben said, relaxing slightly, "It's got details about moving their top scientist to their new facility, tracking down the warehouse and running into you guys. Give me a sec and I can find where it originated from."

"Donnie?" Leo said, sensing that there was something more to it that Ben wasn't seeing.

"The place where their top scientist was working," Donnie said slowly, "It's _Pin Tech_."

The room was silent for a moment before Mikey broke it, " _Who Tech_?"

Raph groaned, Leo rolled his eyes and Donnie face palmed.

"The place where Laura works," Leo clarified.

"Oh," Mikey perked up a bit at the mention of her.

"Do you think she knows this 'top scientist'?" Raph said.

"It's possible," Donnie said, placing a finger on his chin in thought. "She does work in the labs, makes sense that she would be familiar with the others working there."

"You think she _is_ the top scientist?" Mikey said dramatically.

"Don't be stupid, she's wasn't even at _Pin Tech_ tonight," Raph growled, not liking Mikey's implication, "She's probably still back at the lair. She _better_ still be back at the lair."

"Are you kidding?" Leo smiled, teasing Raph, "I bet she left the second we were gone, just to get away from _you._ " Raph glared at Leo.

Donnie rolled his eyes at the bickering before pulling out his T-phone, an action that caught Mikey's attention.

"Whacha doing?" he asked poking his head in front of the screen, blocking Donnie's view. Growling, Donnie pushed him out of the way and ignored him. "Are you gonna track her?" Mikey tried again.

"I'm pretty sure she would kill you if you did," Raph said. "She likes her secrets."

"You would know," Mikey poked, recalling the time Raph tried to follow Laura home to make sure she got there safely. She ended up catching him . . . in the face . . . with her ruler. After that, the guys decided to let Laura keep her location a secret, for both her safety and theirs.

"I was gonna try _calling_ her," Donnie explained, subconsciously rubbing his cheek where he had just earlier that day, felt the wrath of Laura's ruler.

"Good choice," Leo agreed.

"Who is this?" Alice asked from the door way.

"Laura's a friend we met a few weeks ago," Leo explained vaguely, "She's working at _Pin Tech_ while she's in town."

"Oh," Alice said.

"Laura . . ." Ben mumbled it so quietly that no one heard him, getting a distant look in his eyes. But he moment passed and he went back to his computer and trying to trace the origin of the message and where it was heading.


	8. Chapter 8- Plans

**Chapter 8:** Plans

Laura read and re-read the report that she had just found on the Kraang's latest plot, her heart beating faster with each paragraph. She didn't want to believe what she was reading, but she couldn't ignore it either. She was debating what to do with this information.

She should let the turtles know, they could deal with it. But then they would want to know where she had learned it, and then they would come get her. She could try and deal with it herself, since this is the facility where they were working on it. A little sabotage here, and accidental chemical fire there, maybe some nitroglycerin for good measure . . . and she would probably get caught in the process. No good.

Sighing, Laura decided that the best plan of action _was_ to inform the guys. But what if she did so in a way that they didn't know it was her sending the message . . . Anonymous e-mail? Could be traced. Same with text. She wasn't familiar with blocking IP addresses and computer hacking stuffs.

How could she tell the guys without letting them know about her situation?

Laura's thoughts were interrupted when her foot started vibrating, causing her to jump in her seat. Sandrum looked up from inspecting the growth of a sapling, and eyed her questioningly at her sudden movement. She smiled innocently at him before standing up and walking into the small bathroom to one side of the room. She wasn't sure how secure the room was, so she had to make it quick.

Laura lowered the toilet seat and sat on it as she pulled off her shoe and let her cell phone fall into her hand. She had gotten into the habit of keeping it there after her run in with the Foot Clan. It was a good place to hide it. In fact, she had completely forgotten it was there.

The screen lit up with a bowl of grapes as the caller ID. _Are you serious? What do you want now?_ She thought. _Wait, I get reception in a secret alien lab? Really? You'd think they would block transmissions like this or something._

She said snapping out of her daze and finally deciding to answer the call, "Not a good time, Grape."

"Oh, come on," a gruff voice said, "what else are you doing this late."

"Red? Why do you have Grape's phone?"

"You're on speaker," Grape's voice said.

"Hi Laura!" she heard Sunshine call out.

"Mikey!" that was Blue.

"Well, everyone's turned out for the party," Laura mumbled and got right to the point, "What do you want? It's kind of late if you hadn't noticed." She added a yawn for good measure, which wasn't too hard since she was kind of tired. Hopefully they'd assume she was at home for the night.

"At _Pin Tech_ earlier tonight," Donnie explained, not wasting any time, "the Kraang showed up and took one of the scientists to one of their facilities."

 _How the hell did they find out so fast?_! Laura thought as panic raced through her.

"W-what?" Laura said faking concern.

"We thought that you might know the guy, since you worked in the same place," Blue spoke up.

"Uh huh," Laura squeaked, relaxing slightly. _They don't know it's me! This could still work._ A plan began to form in her mind on how to let them know about the Kraang's plan _._ "Who's the guy?" Laura managed to say without her voice cracking.

There was some mumbling in the background before Blue answered, "Professor Franklin Sandrum. Him and his assistant."

"Sandrum," Laura said, silently thankful that she never bothered to tell them who she was working with. "Yeah, I know him. I think he was working with _viruses_." She strained the last word to get the point across.

"Viruses?" Grape asked.

"I thought the Kraang were experimenting with mutagen, not computers," Sunshine said. A sharp thwack sounded, followed by a protest of pain.

"Right," Laura said, ignoring the interruption, "I think he was experimenting with phages and how they can spread possible mutations."

"What sort of mutations?" Blue asked.

"Not sure," Laura feigned innocence. Now for the harder part, "You said the Kraang were interested in him? You think they're trying to spread the mutagen by infecting humans with phages?"

"What's a phage?" Laura heard Sunshine ask.

"It's a virus . . . a way to spread disease," Grape tried to explain.

"Bored!" Sunshine exclaimed, "Oo, shiny!" _Thwack_. "Ow! Would you stop doing that!"

"Is that even possible?" Blue asked, also ignoring his brothers' antics.

"They would have to make a way to pack the phage head full of mutagen instead of mutant DNA," Grape theorized, "and there would need to be a lot of them to cause a full mutation, since each phage head wouldn't be able to hold a lot of mutagen . . . But theoretically, it's possible."

"All they would need to do is fill the water supply or something with the phages, and the mutation would spread," Laura finished. "They could even go as far as being able to infect other people, passing on new phages to healthy people. The entire city will become a breading ground for the mutagenic virus!"

"How do we stop it?" Red asked.

"The virus is still incomplete," Laura said, "but it won't be for long. All you'd have to do is destroy their research and samples and the whole project would go down the drain. They would have to start all over!"

"Great, now we just need to find the lab where they're testing," Blue said. "Thanks, Laura."

"Next time," Laura said, "don't call me, I'll call you . . . maybe." Laura went to hang up, relieved that they bought it. Now they know about the Kraang's latest plot, and they're none the wiser as to where she is.

"Wait, Laura," she heard Grape call out, "before you hang up, we could use your help with this one. This is in your area of expertise."

Laura's panic flared for a second. She couldn't very well help with this problem when she was locked up in a Kraang facility. But then she realized she wouldn't have to come up with an excuse, she already made her position clear to them in the past.

"Not this time, Grape," Laura said softly after her moment of thought.

"What?" Red asked, "What do you mean 'not this time'?"

"I mean," Laura said annoyed, "these are your enemies. This has nothing to do with me, and I don't see how it could help my brother. I've told you before, I'd rather you not get me involved more than you already have . . . Sorry guys."

Laura hung up before they could respond, glad she didn't have to face them in person. She'd done what she set out to do; she let the guys know about the Kraang's mutagen viruses, there was nothing else for her to do. They can handle it. She sighed heavily and slumped back onto the toilet's septic tank, wondering if her decision to stay away was for the best.

Laura's phone blinked as the call ended and the home screen flashed on. Laura gazed at the picture that lit up the small room. Little Laura's triumphant smile still shone as she sat atop her even smaller brother who still struggled to win their wrestling match. Even after all these years, Timmy hadn't changed much. It's been too long since Laura saw that determined look, too long since she'd seen him smile, heard his laugh, joined in his day dreaming . . . This wasn't a time to doubt herself. The guys could handle the virus. _She_ had to help her brother.

With new resolve, Laura stood up before remembering that she was only wearing one shoe.

"Oh yeah," she said and slipped her phone back into its hiding place and tied her shoe on tight.

 **Oo0oO**

"What the heck was that?" Raph asked incredulously after Laura had hung up on them.

"I guess we should have seen that one coming," Donnie mumbled.

"I've got a location," Ben announced from his position, still at his computer. "From what I can gather, the facility where the took their scientist is _here_." A map of the city popped up on the screen, with a small red dot pulsing in the center of a populated area.

"So this is where they're making the mutagen virus," Leo said before going into his planning mode. "Find out what you can about the facility. I need building plans, schematics, security, personnel . . . anything you can find."

"Right," Ben said, not doubting for a second that this youth knew what he was doing and ready to do something he knew would help bring a stop to the Kraang. After so many years of fighting with so little to show for it, he was relieved to have some sort of direction in this mess.

"Mrs. Kennington," Leo said, turning to Alice, "do you think you can find a way to neutralize the virus?"

"I could probably create a solution to disrupt the binding proteins," Alice replied, thinking quickly, "But it wouldn't be able to destroy the mutagen inside, just destroy the ability to transfer the mutagen into the host cells."

"Okay, you can start on that," Leo said, pretending he understood what Alice was talking about.

The Communication Orb flashed in ways the others had never seen before. Orange circles replaced the pink ones, dancing in checkered patterns as Ben sifted through past transmissions he'd intercepted, looking for what he needed. It wasn't long before he found what he needed.

"Alright," Ben announced as a printer hummed to life, buried under other equipment as it began to spit out pages. "I've managed to isolate the facility where they are keeping Franklin Sandrum. I've got everything they have on file about it printing. But hacking into their systems to pull up their on-going experiments could take a while."

"We'll take what you got," Leo said turning back to his Alice. "How fast can you make the stuff to neutralize the mutagen virus?"

"I can have some ready by tomorrow night if Ben can find what I need," Alice said.

"Donnie, you help her," Leo turned to his brother.

"On it," Donnie said, following Alice out of the and into a separate room with minimal lab equipment.

"And what are we supposed to do?" Raph asked.

"We get to planning," Leo said, spreading the newly printed building schematics out in front of them. "Tomorrow, we take out another Kraang lab."

* * *

 **A/N:** The team prepares to attack and Laura gets in deeper than ever as this story approaches its climax. Stay tuned, the rest won't be long :)


	9. Chapter 9-Plants

**A/N** : Quick update, just like I promised.

* * *

 **Chapter 9:** Plants

Several small plants were lined up along the work bench in the Kraang lab the next morning. Laura had a clip board cradled in one arm while she marked down measurements with the other. From this batch, she isolated three plants that met the Sandrum's criteria. Placing the clipboard down, she moved each of these three into their own isolation compartments. It was always best to be on the safe side when playing with the elixir.

"Ready for transfusion," Laura reported as she sealed the last compartment. Sandrum came over with an excited look on his face.

"This is my favorite part," he whispered before pressing a button on a remote control. A hatch in each of the compartments opened above each plant, dropping small amounts of mutagen onto the them.

Laura watched in fascination as the mutation progressed. One of the plants turned a deep red colour and the chloroplasts became large green dots on the leaves, which dried out quickly. The whole thing sagged under a weight it was not used to and crumbled into nothing.

Another one started growing out of control; vines and leaves snaked around the small compartment, trying to find a way out. When the viewing window started to crack, safety measures went into effect and the compartment was blasted with fire, incinerating the whole thing before it could break free.

The last one started sprouting small round purple fruits, which was odd since it was a kind of grass. With later testing, it was found that these fruits contained a mild toxin that's used to stun birds.

"Well that _is_ interesting," Sandrum said as he fingered one of the berries produced by the third plant. "I wonder what it would need to stun birds for?"

"Do any of your specimens ever attack you?" Laura asked out of no where.

"Hm?" Sandrum looked up from his reverie. "Oh, no hardly ever. Although it _has_ happened once or twice, I've found that using plants is much safer than live animals. It seems that if the original organism doesn't possess a consciousness, chances are that it won't come back to attack you."

"Now that's thinking it through," Laura admitted. "But I still think that it would be even better if there was a lid on the elixir." She turned and eyed the large container of mutagen in the middle of the room.

"Why do you call it that?" Sandrum asked suddenly.

"Call what?"

"The mutagen. You call it an elixir. Why?"

"Huh," Laura thought for a second. "I do, don't I. I don't know, I guess I like the word. E-lix-ir. You don't really hear people call a solution an elixir much anymore."

"Hmm," Sandrum considered her words.

"Oh, and another thing, it's so generic to just call it 'mutagen'. I mean seriously, when I've got, like, seven different kinds of chemical mutagens bouncing through my head, it helps to keep things straight."

"Interesting," Sandrum said.

"You think we'll be able to extract DNA from this one," Laura asked turning back to the now mutant plants, eyeing the first one that crumbled under it's own weight. The whole thing was dried out and turned into an ash-like substance.

"Eh, don't bother," Sandrum replied, turning to the plant that sprouted fruit, "this one will be enough. Start the extraction and prep for cloning." Sandrum checked over a few other things

"Right-o boss," Laura said, removing the plant from the containment unit then got to work. She took samples from the plant and started to extract the DNA. She mixed a few chemical reagents together to separate the DNA from other cellular debris before setting up an amplification reaction to replicate and increase the amount of DNA that she would later analyze.

She left the sample to amplify and went back to the original plant and took further clippings, making sure that each clipping would be able to grow apart from the original plant, creating genetically identical versions of the mutant plant they were studying.

Then the doors to their lab clicked and slid open, revealing two squishy, brain blobs on hover pods. They glided into the room and began inspecting all the proceedings.

"You're here early," Sandrum said, following the hovering Kraang around the lab.

"The one known as Professor Sandrum will inform Kraang of any and all proceedings on the project," one of them said, the small mouth piece that was built into their pod flashed pink as the words were translated from original Kraang dialect.

"Yes, yes, yes," Sandrum brushed them off. He then brought them over to the isolation compartments and showed them what they were doing and what they were planning for future tests.

Laura promptly ignored the whole exchanged and went back to tending to the new plants. She tried not to draw attention to herself, keeping a low profile would keep the heat off of her while she poked around where she wasn't supposed to.

Laura fingered the USB drive around her neck again. The small drive held all the information she had on her brother's condition that she had brought over to show Grape the previous day. The previous night, after everyone had turned in for the night, Laura stayed up at the computer, sifting through every experiment and plan that the Kraang were cooking up; at least the ones that taking place in this particular Kraang facility. She had also taken the time to make a copy of Kennington's work on her USB. If she did have to bail for some reason, at least she would have something to show for it.

Throughout the night, she had tried to incorporate Kennington's work into her own problem. Laura had come up with a few ideas, but it would still be a long time before she could come up with something to help unthaw her brother.

 _Crash!_

The sound brought Laura out of her day dream. Her head snapped up and saw that on the ground was the original plant that had sprouted fruit, soil everywhere and the plant crushed. The fall is what caused the loud noise. She jumped forward when she saw that the Kraang that knocked over the plant was now playing with her amplification reaction. The stupid bubble gum wad had popped open the tube and was peering inside like it was the most interesting thing world.

"What the hell!" Laura snapped, grabbing the tube from the brain. The Retard Kraang screeched at her and she hissed right back at it.

"Seriously," Laura mumbled as she capped the tube again angrily, "you probably just contaminated the whole freaking sample! And then you go and smash the original mutant plant. How do you expect work to get done when you come in and ruin everything?"

"Easy, Laura," Sandrum stepped in, trying to calm his assistant. The other hover Kraang flew over and slapped his partner with a tentacle. The two then started screeching at each other, probably arguing over who's the bigger idiot.

Laura growled as the Retard Kraang tried to reach for her stuff again. Something snapped in Laura as someone, yet again, tried to wreck what she was trying to do.

 _That's it_! Laura thought. In a second she was slapping the snaking tentacle with her faithful, wooden ruler. So much for not drawing attention to herself.

"Laura!" Sandrum scolded as the Retard Kraang screeched at the Assistant.

"What!" Laura snapped back, "I'm not just gonna stand around and let these retards ruin my reactions. You _don't_ mess around with my work!"

In retaliation, the Retard Kraang's hover pod started humming and glowing a haunting pink, building up energy. The laser shot out, piercing the beloved ruler Laura still held in her hand. The force of the shot snapped the flimsy piece of wood in half, and Laura dropped the whole thing in surprise.

 _Shit, that was close_ , Laura thought not coming out of the confrontation fully unscathed. Her hand hurt where the heat of the laser scorched it.

"The one known as the Assistant should know her place," the other Kraang said threateningly before turning around and leaving the lab. The Retard Kraang laughed at Laura's fearful expression as she eyed the pieces of her once reliable ruler and held her burned hand. The other Kraang screeched from the doorway and the Retard Kraang screeched back before following it out of the lab.

"Laura, you shouldn't go against them like that," Sandrum said after the door had sealed shut again. He reached out to take a look at Laura's burned hand but she yanked it away.

She knelt down and her body began to tremble as she collected the fragments of her once weapon. The ends were smouldered and the red plastic had melted and hardened into a malformed shape.

"Why do I always get myself into these situations?" Laura whispered, but her voice didn't hold the fear that one would think it would. Instead, Laura's voice held an anger, and her body trembled with rage, not fear.

"Laura?" Sandrum asked warily. Laura stood up and placed her ruined ruler on her desk, beside the computer. A few chunks of the red plastic snapped off at the movement.

"Damn it!" Laura pounded the desk, "Those bastards. Think they can do whatever the hell they want. . ."

 _No! Calm down, calm down. . ._ Laura thought to herself. _It's alright, everything's okay. You gotta keep it together, you've got a job to do, so do it!_ _It's just some stupid ruler. Just one stupid test. You only have one brother._ _You can't afford to mess this up now._

Laura regained control of her emotions. No stupid, retarded, pink, brain thing with a laser was going to stop her from _using_ the Kraang and their acquired knowledge to get what she wanted. She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath and returned to her ruined experiment.

"Sorry, Professor," Laura said as she bent down to clean up the ruined plant, "let's just get back to work."

Sandrum looked at her worriedly as she went about her business. He turned around uneasily to re-asses his samples when Laura called out to him.

"Hey, look at this," she said picking up part of the ruined plant. She pointed to what was once a small purple fruit. In the short amount of time since it had been mutated, no more than 30 minutes, the fruit had withered away giving rise to a beautiful purple and pink flower.

"That's not right," Sandrum said inspecting the flower closer. "The flower blooms before the fruit forms, not the other way around. . ."

He handled the flower with care, so as to preserve it as he analyzed the strange behaviour. But despite his efforts, and unbeknownst to him, a small seed dislodged itself from the inner workings of the flower and floated on the strange air currents in the room until it came to a rest in an open, glowing, green solution. Then it began to change.

 **Oo0oO**

The day wore on as Laura and Sandrum worked away in the lab, trying to undo the damage caused by the Retard Kraang. Even though she had a lot on her plate, Laura's mind couldn't help but wander to think about the virus. The Kraang's latest plan; to infect the people of New York City with a mutagenic virus that could spread like the plague. Laura knew that her turtle acquaintances would be able to deal everything, but that little nagging feeling still hung around.

Laura had managed to salvage enough of the original mutant plant to perform a decent DNA extraction. The sample was amplifying when Laura finally noticed something odd in the vat of mutagen that dominated the lab.

A small dark shadow, the seed that had unknowingly fallen in, was floating in the elixir, soaking up the mutagen. Laura tilted her head in confusion as she drew closer to it. She yelped and jumped back as the seed suddenly began to grow.

A small leaf burst out of the shell, followed by a stalk, followed by more leaves. The plant continued to suck up more mutagen and grow at an astonishing rate. Bark started to form on the stalks and branches broke away from what was now becoming the trunk.

The glass that made up the walls of the vat begun to crack as this new life refused to stop growing. Roots smashed their way through the frail glass, digging into the floor and back out again. Mutagen started to spill out of the holes, but the roots grew thicker and blocked the damage that it had made. The trunk of the tree grew tall, and the branches sprung out of the mutagen from the top of the container, the leaves glowing as the elixir slid off them and back into the vat that was now only half full.

The final product stood tall and proud. A large tree, 30 feet in high with soft glowing bark and shining blue leaves rested in the now half empty vat that will still draining as the tree continued to suck up the mutagen. The whole process took less than two minutes.

"Oh my God," Sandrum breathed as he took in the new sight.

"And that's why we use lids," Laura said, equally astonished.

* * *

 **A/N:** Safety note, always keep a lid on any hazardous materials you may be working with, unless you want a giant mutant tree sprouting in your experiment. :P Remember to Review and stuffs.


	10. Chapter 10-Salvation

**Chapter 10** : Salvation

"Alright team," Leo said. "It's going to be a simple mission. We sneak in, find the lab, and destroy the virus."

"Sounds good to me," Raph smiled. The team of ninjas gathered together in the lair later that night, finalizing the plan for that night's break in.

"Donnie, you got the Solution?" Leo asked.

"Yep," Donnie said, pulling out a vial filled with a clear, colourless liquid. "Mrs. Kennington and I just finished it. All we have to do is mix it in with the virus and the whole batch goes down the drain."

"Alright," Leo said, "Raph and Donnie will take out the virus, me and Mikey will search the place for any of the missing scientists. After the building's clear, we set the place to blow. Everyone clear?"

"Yep," Donnie nodded.

"Got it," Raph confirmed.

" . . ."

"Mikey?" Leo said

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I got it." Mikey smiled.

Leo rolled his eyes, "Let's move."

 **Oo0oO**

The rest of the day in the Kraang lab was spent analyzing the newest mutant. This tree was probably the most incredible thing that Laura had ever seen. The bark on the thick trunk glowed with a soft, relaxing light that reflected off the light blue, shiny leaves, casting patterns over the walls that danced as the air currents played with the leaves. But the most astonishing thing about this tree was what it was doing on a molecular level.

"I can't believe this," Sandrum said as he studied a printout. Looking back at the mutagen, he could see that there was a discolouration in the elixir around the roots. The original green turning a deep blue that rivaled that of the ocean. This discolouration only served to further confirm his findings. "It's actually breaking down the mutagen into it's most basic components and using them as nutrients to grow."

"Mutagen for food," Laura said. "The change in colour is most likely due to the roots secreting some sort of enzyme to break it down, then using protein pumps to transfer the nutrients into it's vascular system."

"By breaking down the mutagen," Sandrum continued, "this specimen has become immune to it. The Kraang's mutagen can no longer affect this life form. It will forever live as it is, never to mutate again."

 _Tim . . ._ Laura thought. Her brother was currently encased in a combination of mutagen and gastric juices. If there were enzymes that could break down the frozen mutagen, then her brother would be free. . . or at least he wouldn't be frozen solid. But still, an improvement.

 _This tree is the hope for Tim. I've found it. I way to fix Tim . . ._ Laura's eyes began to water at the thought of her little brother.

Finally, she would hear his voice. Finally, she could see his smile. _Finally,_ she could tell him how much of a blasted moron, utter idiot, stupid bone head, complete nitwit that he was . . . and how much she loved every bit of him.

"Are you alright, Laura?" Sandrum asked, noticing her watery eyes.

Laura swore under her breath as she tried to press her tears back into her eyes. "Yeah, sorry. Just something in my eye," she said unconvincingly. Before turning to look at the clock. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun would be setting soon.

"I'm just gonna . . . I'm just a little tired is all," Laura said, before sitting down in front of her computer. She glanced down on the desk where her note book lay with all of her different coloured pens. . . and the remains of her little wooden ruler.

 _It was worth it,_ Laura thought, smiling to herself. _Tim's gonna be one step closer to himself._

"I'll send you the data," Sandrum said, "Make sure you finish the report before turning in for the night. I've got to go report in on what we've found."

"Alright," Laura said, opening the file that appeared in her inbox. Sandrum left her to her write up, leaving her alone in the lab.

As the door slid shut, Laura let out a long sigh in relief, before turning to face her brother's salvation. The beautiful tree stood tall and proud, gleaming and sending shapes of light dancing across the walls.

"Now I've just got to find to a way to turn your breakdown process into a serum," Laura told the tree. She sighed again, leaning back in her chair, "I wonder how long it will take. Don't even know how long I have . . ."

A glint caught Laura's eye among the flashing lights of the leaves. What drew her attention was the colour. The bark glowed with a soft white light, which is what swirled around on the walls now. Instead, this new gleam was purple. Squinting her eyes, Laura tried to see where this new colour was coming from. Laura watched in awe as even more purple lights began glowing within the light blue leaves of the tree.

Now curious, Laura found a larger step ladder and propped it up against the side of the mutagen tank, whose mutagen level only decreased more as the tree transformed it into nutrients and sucked it up. She was careful to avoid the massive roots that protruded from the sides of the cracked glass, climbed up to the lip of the tank, and pulled herself up on the ledge. She glanced nervously at the elixir whirling around beneath her, but only momentarily. Her curiosity got the better of her and she reached up to the lowest branch of the tree and struggled to pull herself up.

She stood in the branches, bracing herself on the large trunk and laughed as the patterns of light passed over her body in beautiful patterns. The bark on the branches were rough and smelled of soil after a fresh rain. Laura lost herself in the miracle of nature in a place that was so un-natural.

Another purple glint drew her attention and she looked for the source. Not far away, Laura spotted the small, purple fruit and reached out to touch it. It was soft under her fingers and the small fruit easily broke off from the branch. Laura held it up to the flashing light of the leaves to get a better look, and surprised when she recognized it.

"You're from earlier," Laura realized, making the connection. This tree must have been the result of a secondary mutation from the original mutant that she and Sandrum created earlier that day.

"The flower," Laura mused, "It must have produced viable seeds somehow. And the seed somehow managed to get into the open vat . . ."

Realization struck her and she smiled in disbelief, "Who needs lids anyways."

* * *

 **A/N** : Bit of a shorter chapter, I know. But I just had to end it off there. Just sounds so right :P Next chapter will be extra long, promise. And it's looking like this story will also be 12 chapters, so the end is nye (or however you spell it). XD


	11. Chapter 11- Got em'

**A/N** : As I promised, an extra long chapter. Let's see how this is gonna turn out, shall we

* * *

 **Chapter 11:** Got em'

 _Alright, we're in_ , Leo confirmed as he and his brothers dropped down from the ventilation shaft and into the Kraang facility.

"Which way?" Leo asked quietly.

"According to the blueprints Mr. Torst found," Donnie said checking his T-Phone, "Sandrum's lab is just down that hall. Any of the other scientists should also be in the area."

"Alright," Leo said, "Donnie, you and Raph take care of the virus. Me and Mikey will check the other rooms. Keep your coms open, and try not to set off any alarms. If there're other people, it'll be easier to get them out of here if the Kraang _aren't_ shooting at us."

His brothers nodded then they separated to accomplish their tasks.

 **Oo0oO**

Laura sat at her computer, typing up the report of the preliminary findings on the mutant tree. On the desk next to her broken ruler, sat the fuzzy, purple fruit. She finished imputing the data and saved the report, making sure to create a copy on her USB. She hung the strap around her neck when the door to the lab slid open.

Laura spun her chair around to greet the Professor returning from reporting to the Kraang, or at least she was expecting the Professor. Instead, she was greeted with by . . . no one.

 _Weird,_ she thought, _did the door open on its own?_

Then she saw a head poke around the corner. A _green_ head, followed by a red mask. Another green head soon followed, this one had a purple mask. And Laura did the most sensible thing that anyone would do when confronted by someone she knew, in a place where she wasn't supposed to be.

She hid behind the desk.

 **Oo0oO**

"This is that Sandrum guy's lab?" Raphael asked as he and Donatello looked around the lab. It was a spacious room, with lots of equipment and the trade mark tank of mutagen, only _this_ tank had a freaking _tree_ growing out of it, with _blue_ leaves that sent random lights flying all over the room. Trippy much.

"According to the files Mr. Torst found," Donnie replied, looking up from his phone in amazement at the blue tree.

"I thought he was working on viruses. What's with the giant tree?"  
"Maybe he's working on more than one project?"

"Aw, who cares. Let's just find the stupid virus so we can start trashing the place!"

The two started searching through the room. Raph was randomly opening the fridges and cupboards and stared stubbornly at the many clear bottles of chemicals before realizing that he didn't know _what_ he was looking for.

"Hey Donnie," he said as he slammed a fridge door closed, "what's this virus even supposed to look like?"

"It'll probably be a clear liquid," Donnie said, making his way over to the one of the computer in the room that was tucked away in the corner.

"Are you kidding! Half the things in here are _clear liquids_."

"So read the labels," Donnie snapped as the computer woke up. If he would have paid more attention, he would have noticed a broken, scorched, wooden ruler sitting next to the monitor and the figure crouched only a few feet away behind the desk.

The last report was still open on the computer when it lit up with life. Donnie started to skim through it but dismissed it when he saw it was about the giant tree. As interesting as it was, it wasn't what they were here for.

Moving on, he started to search the database for anything related to the virus.

"Aw, to hell with it," Raph exclaimed after trying to read the small print on a couple of bottles and not being able to pronounce even one of the names. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Let's just grab someone and make them tell us where it is. Where's that Sandrum guy? He should know!"

"Be quiet!" Donnie snapped, and opened a new file. "Here we go," he managed to pull up all the files about the virus, and started scanning through them. "What?" he breathed out in confusion.

"What is it now?" Raph huffed.

"According to this file," Donnie said hesitantly, "Sandrum isn't the one working on the virus."

"Then who is?"

"One of the Kraang, not even a human scientist. But it looks like they're working in this building. Right across the hall actually."

Before any more could be said, a crackle in their ear pieces brought them back to reality.

" _We've cleared the building. Have you guys found the virus yet?"_ Leo asked over the coms.

"We'll have it in a second," Donnie reported.

" _Hang on . . . alright, we're making our way over to you now._ " The line went silent.

The two brothers silently made their way out of the lab with the tree and into the one with the virus across the hall. Laura didn't release her sigh of relief until after the doors had sealed shut once again. She slumped down in her hiding place behind the desk where Donatello had come within a few feet of her.

 _Why did I tell them to come to Sandrum's lab_ , Laura thought to herself angrily, _I totally should have seen this one coming._

 **Oo0oO**

"What have you got," Leo asked as he and Mikey entered the virus lab where Donnie and Raph had found the mutagenic virus. There was a large tank of cloudy liquid along the back wall of the small room. Donnie stood it, emptying the contents of the neutralizing agent into the tank.

"We've got one batch of useless viruses," Donnie announced as the neutralizing agent caused the cloudy liquid to turn a dull green colour.

"Uh, should it be turning green?" Mikey asked.

"That's the mutagen that was inside the phages," Donnie explained. "Like Mrs. Kennington said last night, the neutralizing agent just destroys the phage, not the mutagen inside."

"Either way, it's a win," Leo said. "The building's clear, none of the kidnapped scientists are here. We're good to blow the place."

"Now you're _talking_!" Raph exclaimed with a viscous grin.

"Hold on, hot head," Donnie said. "Something's been bugging me."

"What do you mean, Donnie," Leo asked.

"Last night, Laura said _Sandrum_ was working on the virus."

"Yeah."

"But he's not, a Kraang scientist is. And if he's not the one working on it, then how did Laura know about it?"

"What are you getting at?" Raph asked wearily.

"I'm saying that there's no way that she should know about the mutagen virus. The only way she could have learned about the virus is if she had _direct_ access to the Kraang's data base," Donnie explained. "Which could only indicate . . ."

"She's here," Raph finished, balling his hands into fists. "Oh, she's is so gonna get it."

"Mr. Torst said that the Kraang brought Sandrum _and_ his assistanthere," Leo said, realizing what Donnie was getting at.

"I _told_ you guys that Laura was their top scientist!" Mikey exclaimed a little too loudly, getting himself glares all around and a shush from Leo.

"If she's in the building," Raph demanded, "then we gotta get h–?" He was cut off by Leo's raised hand, gesturing for silence.

Listening for what alerted their leader, the others heard the metallic clanking of Kraang droids coming their way and the pleadings of a man, human by the sounds of it. Leo signaled for continued silence as he drew closer to the door to try and catch a few words.

"You can't destroy it," Leo heard a man say, "it's the breakthrough of the century!"

"The thing which is known as the tree is a danger to what Kraang is doing in this place," a robotic voice sounded. "That which is known as—" The sentence was cut off by the opening and closing of another door, cutting them off from the rest.

"What is it?" Mikey whispered.

"They want to destroy something," Leo said slowly, "and someone else is trying to talk them out of it. I didn't catch the end of it, they went into another room."

"Wait," Donnie said, "did they go into the room across the hall?"  
"I think so," Leo said and noticed his brother's face pale, "Why? What's in there?"

"That's Sandrum's lab," Raph said.

"And if Laura were anywhere in this facility," Donnie continued, "she would be in there."

 **Oo0oO**

 _I can't believe I didn't see it coming,_ Laura thought to herself as she gathered herself from her hiding spot behind the desk. She was actually rather impressed with herself that she went unnoticed by Grape despite their close proximity. Or maybe he's just slipping. Either way, it was a close one.

 _At least they're dealing with the virus. . . just didn't think they'd find this place that fast. Their intelligence seems to be more extensive than normal. Did Grape find some new source of info, or did something happen. . ._

Laura's thoughts were interrupted when the door to the lab suddenly opened again. She flinched, thinking that maybe Red and Grape decided to come back for some reason. What she got instead was worse.

A handful of Kraang droids came barreling in, wheeling some kind of giant plasma canon behind them. Sandrum was at the heels of the droid in front, and was obviously distraught.

"You can't destroy it," Sandrum pleaded, "it's the breakthrough of the century!"

"The thing which is known as the tree is a danger to what Kraang is doing in this place," a robotic voice sounded as the lab door closed behind the group. "That which is known as the tree must be destroyed."

"What? NO!" Laura exclaimed. She should have seen this coming, too. Of course the Kraang wouldn't allow something that can destroy the mutagen to exist. If someone were to destroy their main supply with a serum made from the tree, then their whole plan to mutate the world would be screwed. But despite the Kraang threat, she had just found a way to fix her brother, and she'd be damned if it was all going to be for nothing.

"No one touches my damn tree!" She declared, placing herself stubbornly in between the Kraang and the mutant tree, despite the jab of fear that ran through her chest.

"The one known as the Assistant will move out of what which is known as, the way, or be destroyed by Kraang." The droid that spoke leveled his blaster at Laura and the weapon started to hum and glowed with a deadly pink light.

"Damn it all," Laura muttered and squeezed her eyes shut. Her body started to tremble, but she refused to move. She was so close to fixing Tim and she wasn't about to back down now. Maybe it was seeing Red and Grape that gave her the courage to stand up against the Kraang like this. Maybe she knew on some level that she would come out of this alright since _they_ were there, somewhere. But none of that registered as she stood between a humming, alien, plasma gun and her brother's one hope at restoration, waiting for the scream of laser fire to put an end to everything . . .

Tense moments passed in silence as Laura waited for the searing pain of being shot. But instead, all she heard was a metallic clunk, followed by a small explosion. Flinching at the sudden bang, she opened her eyes one at a time when she realized that nothing had hurt her. Laura saw that the blaster that had been about to fire had been hit with a projectile, causing it to short circuit and explode. On the floor where it fell, still imbedded in the ruined blaster was the in distinctive tool that no ninja should leave home without, a throwing star.

"Oh, thank God," Laura said, wilting in relief, as four figures descended from the rafters, landing between herself and the enemy, ready to defend. In that moment, Laura knew that everything would work out.

"Robot smashing time," Sunshine danced, spinning his nunchucks over head, "Aw yeah!"

Then the Kraang started shooting, and the turtles went leapt into action. Blue, Grape, and Sunshine ripped through their front lines while Red hung back, staying close to Laura. She knew that he always protective, and she'd never been so relieved. She decided to apologize after this for that one time he tried to follow her home . . .

"We are _so_ having a talk about this later," Red yelled at Laura over the sound of battle. He drove his sai into the face of a Kraang and kicked it into another that Grape sent flying his way, sending them both to the ground in a smoking pile that had the small aliens pulling themselves out of and scurrying away.

"Whatever you say, Red," Laura said as she managed to keep her knees from buckling.

"Dude, you don't have ' _talks'_ ," Sunshine said as he danced around blaster fire, "You just yell and hit stuff."

Laura braced herself against one of the giants roots that protruded from the vat of mutagen and watched as the turtles dispatched the Kraang. She didn't care what kind of speech she was going to get, she was just relieved that they were there and that the tree was alright.

The sudden whir of the canon caught the ninjas' attention. "This thing again!" Grape exclaimed, recognizing the same canon from their fight at the warehouse. "Why are they bringing a canon into a lab in the first place!"

"They're going to destroy it!" Laura watching in horror as the canon gathered energy. "NO!" She leapt towards the canon in a vain attempt to stop it from discharging, not caring that she was plunging herself into the mess of battle that was laid out between herself and it. Although _she_ may not have cared, Raphael sure did.

"Oh no you don't," Raph grabbed Laura's arm as she tried to pass by. He pushed her behind him and deflected a shot that would have hit her square in the chest. "Stay behind me!" He yelled through the chaos, throwing a few stars for good measure.

"But their gonna destroy it!" Laura yelled back desperately, but Raph was busy fending off more droids process her distress. Laura could only watch in horror as the canon finished charging and fired.

"Take cover!" Leo yelled from somewhere in the mess of battle. Acting on instinct, Raph pulled Laura down to the ground with him, making sure he was in front, shielding her from the laser blast.

An ear-splitting crack echoed around the room as the laser tore through the blue leaved tree, sending large slivers of razor sharp wooden fragments over the room. Raph felt several shards bounce off his shell and tore into his exposed arms. He gritted his teeth as he got back up on his feet, facing the last few remaining droids.

Before he could join the battle again, a groan filled the room and the top half of the blue tree started to fall. The branches snapped and glass broke as the top portion of the tree fell backwards, crushing precious equipment under its branches.

Raph turned to face his enemies again, and pulled out the large splinters from his arm. He ignored the sting and trail of blood as he twirled his sai in one hand and taunted, "So who's next?"

 **Oo0oO**

Laura was still on her hands and knees where Red had dragged her down, she was struggling to comprehend what had just happened, the pain she now felt spread through her and a wetness soaking her back. The tree, the _one_ thing that was going to help fix her brother, was gone. . .

It was hard to think . . . it hurt. But she couldn't just let go now. She heard the tree falling over and smash into whatever was unfortunate enough to be underneath.

 _Gone . . . it's gone. Tim. . . Timmy, I'm sorry._

Something bumped into her leg, and she slowly looked to see what it was. She recognized the small object and her heart caught in her throat. With a shaking hand, she reached out through the pain in her body and grasped the small purple fruit that had fallen from the tree. She gazed at the small fruit, the only thing remaining of her one hope.

As she was holding it, the small purple fruit started to shrivel. Laura watched through blurred eyes as the fruit shrunk into a small raisin. Her blurred eyes filled with tears and the shriveled fruit fell from her hand.

As her tears fell onto the fruit, it happened. Soaking up the salty water, the shriveled up fruit began to bloom. Wrinkled skin gave way to gentle petals that fanned out, opening up the hidden compartment that housed the small seeds that would in turn spread and create new life. From the despair, the shriveled fruit changed into the beautiful pink and purple flower that brought new hope into Laura's hurting body.

 _Flower. Seeds._ Laura's broken thoughts forced her self into motion once again, grasping for the flower. _I can grow another tree. I can still fix Tim . . ._

 **Oo0oO**

Raphael was still engaged in battle and didn't notice Laura struggle to stand up, stumbling and almost falling over. He was too focused on the danger in front of him, that he failed to see what was happening behind. With a spinning kick, he sent a droid flying across the room. There were only a few left, but more would be coming, he knew that for sure.

He started when a hand fell on his shoulder. He spared a glance behind him at Laura, she had an odd expression on her face. She leaned on him farther and reached out with one hand to give him something.

"Now's _really_ not the time to be handing out flowers," Raph said. A Kraang had taken advantage of the distraction and tried to get a shot off, but a flying Michelangelo put a stop to that.

Laura seemed to lose her balance then, and stumbled again.

"Woah," Raph caught her arm and stabilized her, realizing that something wasn't right and forgetting the fight. His brothers could take care of the rest. "What's wrong?"

She didn't say anything, that far off look was still on her face and she grimaced as her free hand found the necklace that hung around her neck. She clasped the small UBS drive and ripped if off, the clasps swinging around, now broken.

She reached out with the USB and flower tightly in her grasp. Raph noticed that she really didn't look good. Her face was pale and her arm shook where he held her steady, but she looked him dead in the eye with that 'don't mess with me' look, the same look she had when she chased Fish Face and Dog Pound out of the room with a little wooden ruler, and Raph got a little scared.

Laura leaned on Raph before she lost her balance again and shoved the items into his hands. Then she looked him in the eye again. "Fix. . . Tim," she rasped out, her eyes losing focus.

"Fix what?" Raph glanced down at the items in his hand, but he didn't get a chance to decipher what she meant. "Hey!"

Laura's legs gave out and she slumped to the ground. Raphael felt his blood turn to ice as he saw what was bothering her. Where the wood fragments had bounced harmlessly off his shell, they had imbedded deep into Laura's exposed, unprotected back.

"LAURA!"

* * *

 **A/N:** Oh no! What the hell! What a cliff hanger! I know, I know, I'm horrible :P But Come on, I promised longer chapter, I never said it would end nicely :P Only one chapter left!


	12. Chapter 12- Healing

**A/N:** Here we are, the end of Fixing Tim. Finally. I gotta admit, I wasn't really sure where I wanted to end this one, but I kind of like how it turned out. . . don't know if you guys will though (evil laugh). Here's to healing.

* * *

 **Chapter 12:** Healing

Red and white flashed across the buildings and the high pitched wailing echoed down the empty street. The turtles watched the ambulance tare down the asphalt towards the nearest hospital at top speed, carrying their friend, alone, to those who could save her life.

They had completed their mission; they destroyed the virus and destroyed the Kraang database. . . but at what cost. Would their friend wake up? Would she win in the battle against her wounds?

Raph grimaced and clenched his fists as the ambulance disappeared around a corner. _Why couldn't I protect her?_ _She was right behind me, but I . . . I . . ._

"Come on," Leo placed a hand on his tense shoulder. "Let's go home."

Raph didn't move and continued to stare straight ahead. "Are we just supposed to leave her?" he demanded fiercely.

"It's better this way," Donnie said quietly. He didn't like the situation any better than his brother, but Donnie knew that the hospital's equipment was better than the half baked machines he'd managed to salvage and restore.

"We'll get April to check in on her," Leo assured Raph. "She can keep us updated."

With his regret still firmly twisting in his gut, Raph gave in and the turtles headed home.

 **Oo0oO**

April breathed in the smell of sanitizer and bad hospital food, as she navigated the twists and turns of the hospital wing early the next morning.

 _315 . . . 317 . . . 319 . . ._ April came to a stop in front of room 321 and gingerly pushed the door open. A large window let in warm light from the morning sun, shining on the monitoring equipment set up beside the lone bed in the room.

"Are you a relative?" April started at the voice, recognizing a nurse in blue scrubs standing beside the bed with a clipboard. The soft beeping of the heart monitor was a constant cacophony in the background.

"A friend," April replied softly and the nurse nodded. April looked down on the bed at the girl she had quickly becomes friends with. Laura was lying on her stomach, so as not to disturb the carefully wrapped wounds on her back. Electrodes were attached to monitor her vitals, and a small IV tube ran along her arm, keeping her hydrated. "How is she?"

"It was touch and go for awhile," the nurse admitted. "She lost a lot of blood, but none of the shards pierced her lungs or any other vital organs. The surgery was successful and there were only a few complications. It was pretty close, but she's a fighter."

April nodded and smiled slightly, agreeing whole heartedly with the nurse. She'd only known Laura a short period of time, but April knew that she was being lead by a determination that wouldn't let up, no matter the cost. No flesh wound would keep her down for long . . . she hoped.

The nurse left and April sat down in the chair beside the bed. It was a school day but she'd opted to skip out. The turtles had called her last night and told her what had happened. She had wanted to leave for the hospital right then and there, but it was almost four in the morning, and Leo convinced her to wait until morning. So morning came around and here she was, playing the waiting game, wondering how long it would take for the stubborn girl to wake up.

 **Oo0oO**

"She gave me this," Raph had said the night before, handing Donnie the flower and USB drive. "She said to 'Fix Tim'."

Donatello had since spent a sleepless night in the lab sifting through the files that Laura had saved to the little stick. He'd been at it for a few hours when he noticed that Raph hadn't left, despite the late hour. He was barely awake, propped up on the work bench, nodding every now and then, only to snap his head up when he nearly drifted off.

"You _can_ go to sleep, you know," Donnie said after he almost fell off the stool.

"Shad up," he grumbled back, shaking his head to clear away the grogginess. "Whas on tha thing anyways," he slurred his words as he tried to stay awake.

"In short, a way to fix Tim," Donnie said. Raph perked up a bit and Donnie continued. "That giant tree in the lab was capable of breaking down mutagen and absorbing it as nutrients by secreting a mixture on enzymes from its roots to—"

"I'm really tired right now," Raph interrupted, "so can you please give me the version that _won't_ put me to sleep."

Donnie rolled his eyes, "By using a substance that the tree makes, we could potentially de-thaw the Pulveriser."

"That's good, right?"

"It would be," Donnie sighed, "if the Kraang hadn't destroyed the tree. There's no way to re-create the breakdown process of the mutagen without it."

"Whabout the flower," Raph said, fingering the object in question. The delicate pink and purple flower was starting to wilt after spending too much time without a source of water.

"That's where Laura is almost as much of a genius than I am," Donnie smiled. "According to the reports, the tree mutated from an already mutant plant that grew fruits before flowering."

"What does that matter?" Raph asked, pretending to understand what Donnie was getting at.

"It matters because the flower has the seeds, not the fruit."

"So we have seeds?"

"And with seeds, we can grow a new tree."

"So problem solved right? Why are we still awake?"

"Why are _you_ still awake," Donnie insisted. "There're still other files that Laura got from the Kraang database, _including_ all of Alice Kennington's work that she thought she lost! With this, I've got a solid lead on how to create a retro . . ." Donnie left his sentence hanging when he realized that he'd lost his audience. Raph had finally lost the battle against his fatigue, and was sleeping in a pile on the workbench.

Donnie smiled at his sleeping brother before returning his attention to his computer and the files Laura had collected. He finally had a decent lead on retro mutagen, a way to fix all the wrongs that had happened. He could bring back April's dad, fix Timothy, and hopefully put a stop to the Kraang once and for all.

 **Oo0oO**

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _Damn, that's annoying._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _Oh god, make it stop._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _I said stop._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep. . .

 _Stop! Ow. Man, that hurts. Wait, what happened?_

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _Oh yeah. Stupid Kraang blew up my tree, and I got hurt. . ._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _Guess that makes that a heart monitor, or something. Guess it's not gonna stop._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep. . .

 _Should I open my eyes? Naw, sleep sounds much better._

" . . ."

 _Hmm? Is someone here?_

". . . she okay? . . ."

 _Or more than one person._

". . .se said it was close, but she should pu. . ."

 _Talk louder, I can't hear you._

Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .

 _Shut up, stupid monitor. I'm trying to listen._

". . .should have been watching more clo. . ."

". . . middle of a battle . . . not your fault. . ."

Thump!

"I couldn't protect her!"

The loud sound near her head finally snapped Laura out of her state of half consciousness and her eyes flew open. The first thing she was a green fist planted firmly beside her head, and way too close for comfort.

"That's my face," Laura rasped out and the hand was snatched away at the sudden sound of her voice.

"Laura!" a barrage of voice bounced painfully around her head. She groaned in protest and buried her face into the mattress she lay on in an attempt to get away from it.

"Sh!" someone scolded, "A nurse will hear you and visiting hours ended a while ago."

"Laura," someone else said, mush closer. "Are you okay?"

She groaned again at the question and tried to lifted her head. She was lying on her stomach and her neck was a little sore, but it was nothing compared to the ache in her back. She managed to focus her eyes after a few seconds and looked up into the face of a worried Grape. She could see Red right behind him. Blue and Sunshine were there, too.

"Just dandy," she replied, closing her eyes again. "What happened?"

"You were hurt pretty bad," Grape explained.

"Yeah, I can feel," Laura replied.

"We called an ambulance," Grape continued, "you're in the hospital."

"I'm in a hospital?" That didn't sound right. " _Your_ in a hospital?! They let you in?"

"Naw, we ninja'd our way in," Sunshine called out.

"Which means we have to _keep quiet_ ," the only female voice said.

"Spring?" Laura asked as the red head stepped out from behind the mob of green. "What are you doing here?"

"Well the guys needed _someone_ to stay here during the day," she explained with a smile. "They couldn't very well come themselves."

"Yeah. Thanks, Spring." Laura moved her arms, feeling the pain and stiffness that had settled in. "How long have I been out?"

"A day," Grape reported.

"The doctors said you would be waking up tomorrow morning," Spring said, "but one of the nurses said you would probably wake up earlier."

"And why's that?" Laura groaned, working the stiffness out of her arms.

"Because you're a fighter," Red said smirking.

"Yeah? You think so?" She tried to push herself up but didn't get too far before hot spikes of pain assaulted her back, making her vision flicker.

"Don't get up," Grape urged her back down, "You'll rip your stiches."

"Not the only thing imma rip," she groaned as the spikes returned to their horrible aching. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek back on the mattress with another groan.

"You should get some sleep," Blue spoke up. "We'll check in again tomorrow."

"Wait," Laura said, "what about the tree? What happened after I went down?"

The guys all exchanged looks before Grape responded. "The tree was destroyed. While Raph called the ambulance, we set charges and destroyed the rest of the labs. There's nothing left of the Kraang facility."

Laura groaned again, closing here eyes, suddenly tired. "Guess it's for the best. What about the flower?"

Grape smiled at that, "The flower's dead, but the seeds it made are just fine. Do you really think they'll grow into something that can digest mutagen?"

"It better," Laura said, starting to drift off, "I can fix Tim with it. . . process the enzyme digestion . . . breakdown of chemical bonds . . . Timmy's . . . better. . . Zzz."

"Heh," Raphael chuckled, "couldn't even wait until we were gone."

"I think she's gonna be just fine," Leo smiled at the resting form.

"She's a fighter, alright," April agreed.

"Are we really gonna leave again?" Mikey asked.

Leo rolled his eyes and opened the large window, "Come on guys, let's go home."

 **Oo0oO**

"Germinating. Grape! It's germinating!" Laura exclaimed the following week. She'd just gotten out of the hospital that morning, and was already back to work. Her back was still sore, and she was on all kinds of pain killers, but she was so close to being able to talk with her brother. Even if it was through some crappy voice box, Tim would finally be conscious again and Laura couldn't wait to give him the tongue lashing of the century, then laugh at him for getting turned into an organ monster.

Grape had decided to wait until Laura was well enough before attempting to grow the tree. The flower had produced five seeds, and usual 'just add water' tactic wasn't quite working. Laura theorized that maybe, since the mother tree had grown in a tank of mutagen, maybe it became dependant on the stuff.

Grape had been reluctant at first, it was never a good idea to purposely drop something into a beaker of mutagen, but Laura persisted and it was paying off. Shortly after being exposed to the elixir, a small shoot sprouted out, and soon a sapling about a foot tall had sucked the small beaker dry. The little leaves were the telltale metallic blue, but the shoot wasn't old enough to glow yet.

"Holly chaloopa," Grape breathed, "I can't believe that worked."

"Through continuous mutation," Laura explained, waving a finger in the air, "the tree has gained a resistance to the elixir. I mean, come on, it wouldn't work very well if kept mutating every time it needed to feed off of it."

"I guess so," Grape agreed, bending down so the sapling was at eye level. "So what? We water it with mutagen?"

"Seems like it. Good thing you guys found a good supply last week. What was it, like, ten or so canisters?" Laura picked the baby tree out of the beaker and held it gingerly in her hands, "You think it'll grow in soil?"

"Don't see why not. It _is_ a tree."

Laura giggled as she spun with the small tree, "Look Kenny! I got myself a baby tree." Laura held up the small miracle to Alice Kennington as she entered the small room. Ben Torst had set a makeshift lab in one of his many safe houses for the team of scientists to use. Laura had insisted in coming here directly after being released from the hospital. She hadn't met the man, but she was impressed at Benjamin Torst's set up.

"It's beautiful," Alice exclaimed, examining the metallic blue leaves and oddly coloured trunk.

"You should see it when it starts to glow," Laura smiled, "The light from the trunk reflects off the leaves and its just breath taking."

"Then let's hope it matures fast," Alice said with an excited smile. She moved over to her work station and continued with her work. Alice had been ecstatic when Donatello showed up with a copy of all her work. Thanks to Laura, she could continue where she left off. But this time, she had the help of the genius turtle and well tuned Assistant to help her along.

"Got any pots around here," Laura looked around distracted then spotted a very large beaker. "Close enough." She picked it up and looked around again. "Any soil? No, never mind. Guess I'm stopping by the garden store on my way home."

"Or you could just go home and _sleep_ , like the doctors told you to," Donnie reminded her as she started to gather her bag.

"Who needs sleep when you've got science!" Laura exclaimed, tucking the beaker that contained her precious sapling under her arm. "See ya tomorrow, Grape. Bye Kenny." She waved at her two lab partners before turning to the door.

Before she could reach for the knob, the door swung open. Laura looked up at the stocky man, taking in the dark brown hair with streaks of grey, the round glasses. . . She back away as Benjamin Torst started in surprise at the new face.

 _It can't be,_ Laura thought as she tightened her grip of the beaker, staring at this man who she never thought she'd see again, her heart beating strongly in her chest and a myriad of emotions passed through her.

"Ben," Alice greeted the man, "I didn't know you were coming today."

"Just checking in," Ben smiled at Alice, then turned to Laura. "You must be Laura. It's good to finally meet you. I'm Benjamin Torst." He extended his hand.

She didn't move to accept it. She just stared up at the man in front of her and a new wave of emotions replaced the old ones as she realized what was happening.

 _He doesn't recognize me._ . .

"Laura? Something wrong?" Grape asked when she didn't grasp Mr. Torst's outstretched hand.

She snapped out of her shock and looked down at the hand. Might as well play along. She gingerly clasped his hand is a short shake, managing a forced smile behind eyes that were beginning to get hot.

"Sorry," Laura managed to keep her voice semi-steady, "but I've got to go." She quickly left the room before starting to run. She ran, until hot tears overflowed from her eyes and her wounds burned in protest. She came to a stop beside a light post, breathing heavily and fighting back the pain.

 _What the hell! Why is he here? He left! Why's he back?_

The questions assaulted her mind and she felt emotions she had long since tried to bury. For fifteen years Laura lived with the pain of knowing that her father left, and now he just appears out of no where. But that wasn't the thing that put her off the most. The gut wrenching icing on top of the cake that had her crying over more than the pain in her back made it all the more unforgivable.

 _He didn't recognize me._

* * *

 **A/N** : And thus end another tale of Laura Whitten and the fight for her brother. But what will the appearance of her long lost father so to her mental stability? Find out next time in . . . actually I don't know what I'm gonna call the next one :P And speaking of the next one, it's probably not gonna happen for a while. I started another story that I am wanting to finish before continuing with my Laura Whitten series (which is looking like there will be another two or three stories to it). So bear with me, and check out Hyper Reality. At this point, there's only really the prologue but I can assure you, it's gonna epic :D


End file.
